LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Chap. Copyright No. 

8helf-t5k.-_3.*5* 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



^t,!^^'' 



PREFATORY NOTE 

In dosing this last volume of my Nineteenth Century series, 
I should like to thank my critics and my readers for much 
kind appreciation; among the latter I have made some real 
friends. 

It would be hard to convey to others an idea of the many 
difficulties I have had in bringing together the numerous sub- 
jects contained in this volume, especially what in it relates to 
the last two or three years. In general, a writer of history has 
the work of some predecessor to serve him as a guide line, but 
I had to buy contemporary books of travel and adventure, to 
borrow others from the shelves of libraries, and, above all, to 
pick my recent facts out of piles of magazines and newspapers, 
American, English, French, and Italian. I was limited as to 
space, and pressed for time ; the manuscript of the book had to 
be ready a month or more before the close of the century. 

The part of the book that relates to France (1892-1900) ends 
with the complete political calm which followed the opening of 
the Exposition. Of the Exposition itself I have said nothing. 

" Russia and Turkey " has been brought down almost to the 
present day. Most earnestly my readers, I trust, will hope for 
the recovery of the young Czar. 

England is coming triumphantly out of her great struggle in 
South Africa. Her people, heart and soul, have backed her 
administration. We hope that she may prove herself as trium- 
phant in the work of reconciliation as she has been in putting 
an end to organized opposition ; for, as the two Republics no 
longer have any government or any political leaders, the 
guerilla warfare still carried on seems purposeless and cruel. 
The reception of Mr. Kruger by the municipality of Paris and 
by applauding crowds in France is due, in the first place, to 
long-cherished racial jealousy of England, aggravated by her 
recent sympathy with the accused in the Dreyfus aiTair, and by 
a wild desire among the dangerous classes in France to do 
anything that may harass or embarrass their own present 
government. 



2 PREFATORY NOTE 

I closed my account of the war of the United States with 
Spain when the remainder of the history became American ; 
that is, after the surrender of Santiago and Manila and the sign- 
ing of the protocol by which Spain shifted the burden of her 
colonies on to the shoulders of a younger, stronger, and more 
progressive nation into whose affairs I have nowhere presumed 
to permit myself to intrude. 

Many personal friends and many readers to whom I am a 
stranger have asked me why " Germany in the Nineteenth 
Century " was not included in my series. They point out that 
Germany is a most important factor in European politics, and 
ought not to have been left out of my review of the closing cen- 
tury. The answer I have to make to these remonstrances 
is that I gave in " Italy in the Nineteenth Century " a full ac- 
count of the making of the present German Empire and its 
history up to the battle of Sadowa, and also in " France," up to 
the close of the Franco-Prussian War. The history of Ger- 
many since 1888 has been the personal history of the Emperor 
William. I do not like to write of people or of things I have 
failed to understand, and the Emperor William was to me an 
enigma that I could solve only by an hypothesis which I had no 
right to put into print without evidence to sustain it. 

During the past five years I have greatly changed my opinion 
of the Emperor William, and I could now write his history 
without fear of bearing false witness against him, but by using 
up my material in my volumes upon Italy and France I had 
made it impossible to write " Germany in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury." I should no longer have had the advantage of the most 
picturesque passages in the history of modern Germany, be- 
cause I had already told how the Empire was made ; how King 
William of Prussia received the offer of the Imperial crown in 
the Prefecture at Versailles, when flushed with victory ; of 
Prince Bismarck, who was Germany incarnate, both in his 
strength and roughness ; of Sadowa and the annexation of 
Hanover; and of the probable future of the present North- 
German Empire. The rest of the history would have been an 
account of factional struggles in the Reichstag and the Reichs- 
rath, of studies in the many-sided character of the young 
Emperor, and of guesses as to his dimly foreshadowed designs 
in Asia Minor and China. 

I now regret that I put it out of my power as early as 1892 to 
use material which would have added greatly to the interest of 
any attempt I might have made to write of Germany. 

I have said nothing of the present situation in China. Events 



PREFATORY NOTE 3 

in the Flowery Kingdom developed themselves when my book 
was becoming too large to admit more than a brief notice of 
them, and any reader can find what he may want to know upon 
the subject in recent periodicals and newspapers. 

I regret also that I had no space to tell the story of Samoa, 
which interested me very much, and concerning which I had a 
chapter already written. 

There is another subject I have not touched upon ; I mean 
the late struggle in the Church of England between ritualism 
and the simpler forms of public worship. I did not think any 
discussion of this controversy was appropriate in a book of 
historical narrative ; moreover, I have lived through several such 
crises. Evangelicalism and Puseyism were watchwords of two 
parties in my early days, and I have seen excitement in the 
Church calm down with a residuum of more fervent personal 
piety and of more lively zeal in the great struggle which, as 
" one army of the Living God," all Christians ought to carry on, 
not against each other, but against the common foes of their 
great Master. I could wish the Twentieth Century might see a 
Missionary Union among Christians, by means of which all de- 
nominations, putting out of sight their disagreements upon minor 
matters, and holding fast the fundamental doctrines of our 
faith, might together carry Christianity to the heathen. In that 
work they should be unencumbered with differences of opinion 
as to Church organization, adult or infant baptism, the office in 
the Church of departed saints, and other matters which now 
divide those "that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
Such things need not distract the minds of the ignorant, to 
whom Christianity should be presented in simpHcity as the 
message of glad tidings sent to all of us from God. 



E. W. LATIMER. 



BoNNYWooD, Howard Co., St. Denis P. O., Md., 
December i, 1900. 



I 



CONTENTS 



Part I. — FRANCE 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. President Sadi-Carnot 9 

II. President Casimir-Perier 33 

III. President Felix Faure 46 

IV. The Dreyfus Case ■ 62 

V. President £mile Loubet 93 

Part II. — RUSSIA AND TURKEY 

I, Alexander III. Nicholas II 113 

II. Railroads and Waterways in Russia . . 133 

III. The Peace Congress. The Brother of the 

Czar. Finland 148 

IV. The Sultan and Armenia 159 

V. Crete, and the War in Thessaly .... 189 

VI. In the Balkans 212 

Part III. — ENGLAND 

I. The Diamond Jubilee 233 

II. The Queen's Ministers from 1880 to 1900 . 249 

III. Frontier Wars in India 265 

IV. India, the Plague and the Famine . . . 286 



6 CONTENTS 

Part IV. —EUROPE IN AFRICA 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Egypt 299 

II. The Dongola Campaign 30S 

III. Atbara and Omdurman 321 

IV. Fashoda. End of the Khalifa 336 

V. The Transvaal. President Kruger . . . 344 

VI. The Jameson Raid 356 

VII. The Boer War. Ladysmith 379 

VIII. The Boer War. Capture of Pretoria . . 408 

IX. Other Notes on Africa 436 

Part V. — ITALY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

I. Italy 461 

II. Austria-Hungary 481 

Part VI. — SPAIN 

The Spanish-American War 497 

INDEX 523 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Emperor Nicholas II Frontispiece 

Ferdinand de Lesseps To face page i8 

Casimir-Perier 34 

Felix Faure , . . . . 46 

President Loubet 94 

The Empress of Russia 158 

Prince George of Crete 198 

General Kelly-Kenny 236 

Mrs. Gladstone 254 

General Lockhart 284 

Lord Roberts 300 

Lord Cromer 322 

Dr. Jameson 344 

Lord Kitchener 366 

Major Marchand 388 

President Kruger 400 

General Joubert 420 

General Buller 450 

General Pelloux 470 

Count Badeni 488 

Admiral Dewey 498 

General Miles 502 

Admiral Cervera 508 

Admiral Sampson 512 

Admiral Schley 518 



part $ 

FRANCE 



Chapter I. President Sadi-Carnot. 

" II. President Casimir-Perier. 

" III. President Felix Faure. 

" IV. The Dreyfus Case. 

" V. President £mile Loubet. 



THE LAST YEARS 
OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

-♦ 

FRANCE 



CHAPTER I 

PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 

'T*HE misfortune of France in its parliamentary system 
-'• of government is that that system does not seem to 
adapt itself to the character and wants of the body politic. 
It is otherwise with the internal administration of the nation, 
which, late observers tell us, seems in all essential respects 
to meet the needs of an orderly and frugal population. In 
the Chamber of Deputies, — the governing body that has 
in charge the " politics " of France, — two great parties 
have been lacking for many years to oppose each other. 
The Chamber is broken into " groups," — into eight groups, 
if we may sort them roughly, — whose lines of separation 
are so indistinct that they run one into another. A parlia- 
mentary majority composed of two, three, or four of these 
" groups " can support or overthrow a ministry. Prior to 
1887, when M. Gr^vy resigned (or was deposed), there 
had been, for practical political purposes, something like 
a " Republican party," and something like a " Conserva- 
tive party " to divide the Chamber : thus Republicans of 
every shade would on occasion unite to oppose the Con- 
servatives, by whom I mean those not in sympathy with 



10 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Republican institutions, — Legitimists, Orleanists, Bonapart- 
ists, and Clericals. But there has since been no settled 
majority acting under recognized leaders in support of a 
distinct policy, neither has there been an organized opposi- 
tion to oppose or modify the views of the majority. Jeal- 
ousies and private interests now lead to changes of ministry, 
though it is perfectly well known that the new ministry will 
pursue very much the same policy as the old. 

In this way, from 1891, when my " France in the Nine- 
teenth Century" was written, to 1896, there were eight 
ministries ; even in the troubled reign of Louis Philippe, 
the same number lasted twelve years, from 1835 to 1847. 
For the most part, the Prime Ministers (called sometimes 
the Presidents of the Council) have been Moderate Re- 
publicans, or, if of the Radical faction, tenure of ofifice has 
tempered their zeal by a sense of responsibility; but no 
French Ministry can continue in office unless it conciliate 
the Radicals, and it has, therefore, to gain their favor by 
the distribution of places and patronage. 

All accounts from those who have studied popular feeling 
in rural France agree that public sentiment in the provinces 
is not Radical, but rather is Conservative. The peasantry 
and the tradespeople (whom, in the words of Mr. Bodley, 
I have called "an orderly and frugal population") desire 
above all things stability and quiet. They willingly leave 
the turmoil of politics to those paid to take part in it, and 
would probably accept any government that promised them 
peace and security; but in their hearts still lingers the 
Napoleonic legend ; their preference would be for a strong 
ruler of whom they might be proud. As there is no present 
prospect of such a man to govern them, they content them- 
selves with voting for the deputy likely to promote their 
private interests, or those of the district he will represent 
in the Chamber. It is the same thing in Italy, and will 
probably be the same in any parliamentary system confided 
to the working of a Latin race. 

The President of the , French Republic may be said to 
be its figure-head. He controls no policy ; that of his 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT II 

government shifts with the Cabinet imposed on him. M, 
Gr^vy took no personal interest in the home affairs of 
France ; M. Carnot, for six years, rigidly abstained from 
politics, though before his election he had been a party 
leader and an accomplished statesman. As President he 
devoted himself to the task of making his office respect- 
able by his charities and private virtues. He had begun 
life as a hardworking, painstaking civil engineer in the 
newly acquired province of Savoy, one of the trophies of 
French victories in 1797, — victories due largely to the 
genius for the organization of the armies of the Revolution 
displayed by his great ancestor, Lazare Carnot. Savoy was 
lost to France under the Restoration, but was restored to 
her, during the second Empire, by Napoleon HI. When 
the Emperor's memory is execrated for the loss of Alsace and 
Lorraine, surely the acquisition of Savoy and Nice should be 
entered in his favor on the page of history as a per contra. 

The fall of General Boulanger in 1889 caused conster- 
nation through the ranks of all parties in France, for men 
of all opinions, anxious for change, had secretly or avowedly 
supported him, — Legitimists and Bonapartists, extreme 
Radicals ^ and even Socialists ; while in the country at large 
the showy leader on his prancing horse appealed to the 
strongest passion in the French heart, which is to follow 
the lead of a dazzling or all-conquering hero. 

The collapse of General Boulanger, succeeded by his 
melancholy suicide, shattered the Monarchist party. The 
Comte de Paris had never been personally popular with 
his supporters. He had not the dash and spirit necessary 
in France to win the enthusiasm of a glory-loving people. 
His repudiation of Orleanism in favor of Legitimism, 
shown by his reconciliation with his cousin at Frohsdorf 
and in other ways, had alienated the advocates of Consti- 
tutional Monarchy ; while his profitless and vulgar trafficking 
with a military adventurer forfeited the attachment of the 

^ The same factions, minus the Socialists, whose place is occupied 
by the Clericals, were Anti-Dreyfusards in 1899, and now call 
themselves the Nationalist party. 



12 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

better class of thinking men, whether of the Orleanist or 
the Legitimist party. 

Thanlcs to the well-organized system of local administra- 
tion established in France by Napoleon,^ under prefects, 
sub-prefects, and maires, the private life of Frenchmen in 
the provinces goes on with order and tranquillity, whatever 
may be the form of government, or whoever in Paris 
may preside over the destinies of France. 

Let me not be misunderstood when I say that patriotism, 
as we employ the word, is not a virtue of the French peo- 
ple. They will follow a leader with enthusiasm and fidelity, 
they will make any sacrifice in support of a popular idea ; 
but they have not the patriotism which has a single eye 
fixed on what is for the good of the fatherland and its 
whole people. Before the Revolution the spirit that ani- 
mated French armies was loyalty to the King ; afterwards 
enthusiasm — not for France, but for the Republic ; 
lastly, fidelity to their great leader Napoleon. If another 
war should break out in the coming century, its rallying 
cry will be pour la revanche. The good of France would 
be forgotten in chauvinism, as it is now in personal in- 
terests or in insane attachment to some prevalent idea. 

The elevation of M. Carnot to the Presidency, together 
with the course run by Boulangism during the years from 
1885 to 1 89 1, has been told in a former volume.'^ 

Mr. Bodley, in his valuable book on modern France, 
says that " the years that Carnot was President of the 
Republic were unexampled in France, even in times of 
revolution, for the bitterness of political passion and the 

1 This system, the credit for which is usually given to Napoleon, 
the great master of detail and organization, was first suggested in 
1756 by M. d'Argenson. He proposed that France should be divided 
into departments, with the appointment of local mayors and magis- 
trates in the smallest villages ; he recommended the establishment 
of uniformity of weights and measures throughout the country, the 
institution of tribunals of commerce, the holding of agricultural con- 
ferences, and the establishment of free education. — M. Ferdinand 
Rothschild : Nineteenth Centwy Magazine. 

'■^ " France in the Nineteenth Century," by E. W. Latimer. 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 1 3 

ferocious license of the press. Thie Decorations scandal, 
the Boulangist movement, and the Panama affair filled the 
entire period with scurriHty and recrimination." 

Of the two former I have already written, — of the re- 
maining subjects of general interest during the Presidency 
of M. Carnot there remain the Panama scandals, and the 
received opinion among the French that their country had 
secured the Russian alliance, in pledge of which they 
hailed with wild enthusiasm the presence of a Russian fleet 
in Toulon and of Russian officers irf their capital ; lastly, 
the tragic death of M. Carnot, June 24, 1894, a few months 
before the ending of his Presidential term. 

A tide-water canal to cut the Isthmus of Panama had 
been projected as early as May, 1879.^ One milliard two 
hundred millions of francs expended in its construction 
would, it was calculated, pay the investors seven per cent. 
M. de Lesseps visited Panama in 1880, and reduced the 
estimate. He held out hopes that the work would be com- 
pleted in eight years from that time. All classes of French- 
men, inspired by the success of the Suez Canal, hastened 
to put money into what seemed a national enterprise. Not 
capitalists alone, but peasants, tradesmen, and thrifty men 
of moderate fortune, invested one milliard three hundred 
millions of francs ($251,000,000) in the undertaking. It 



1 My brother, Preble Wormeley, was asked, in 1850, to furnish to 
Mr. William Aspinwall of New York, plans for a ship railroad to 
transport vessels across the Isthmus of Panama. Ships were to be 
raised by something called, I think, " camels," but I had no knowl- 
edge whatever of the plans, nor could I have understood them. My 
brother sent them to England to get the professional opinion of Mr. 
Brunei, in whose office he had been educated as a civil engineer, 
and who had the highest opinion of his talents and his character. 
Mr. Brunei entirely approved the plans, and they were handed over to 
Mr. Aspinwall. My brother died shortly after (Jan. 10, 1S51) after 
a very brief illness, and I never heard any more of the ship railroad 
or of the plans. May I be forgiven for liking to record that my 
brother, cut off at the age of twenty-six, when life seemed full of 
promise, had already distinguished himself at King's College, Lon- 
don, in 1842; he carried off every prize the College had to give that 
year. 



14 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

was understood that two contractors had engaged to do the 
work for five hundred and twelve millions. 

In 1892 most of the money paid for shares in the Com- 
pany had disappeared, and only a small part of the work had 
been accomplished. Immense sums had been paid for 
newspaper puffs, parliamentary influence, and hush-money, 
and the directors, by the aid of bribery, had floated loans. 
In 1886 permission was sought from government to raise 
more money by a lottery. Numbers of petitions were 
signed throughout France in favor of this scheme, but the 
Chamber of Deputies rejected the bill. Lesseps then 
proposed other means of raising money. The promoters 
of the Canal, who dreaded the collapse of their scheme, 
went- deeper and deeper into secret transactions with 
journalists, lobbyists, and legislators. Meantime engineer- 
ing experts, sent out to survey the proposed route, reported 
that a tide-water canal was impracticable. 

The lottery scheme was subsequently revived in 1888, 
but M. Tirard, then Minister of Finance, refused to enter- 
tain the project until a canal with locks should be substi- 
tuted for the tide-water system, which engineers and 
contractors alike had pronounced impossible. To con- 
struct these locks, M, Eiffel, the man whose name is 
associated with the Eiffel Tower, was employed to furnish 
machinery of four hundred and fifty thousand horse-power, 
and was paid thirty-three millions of francs for the same. 
After this the Lottery Bill was passed, and a loan was 
authorized by the Chambers. 

To float this loan Baron Joseph Reinach was intrusted 
with six millions of francs, but all possible exertions failed 
to secure more than six hundred millions of francs, with 
which Charles de Lesseps promised to complete the Canal 
in three years. 

When the crash came in 1892, it was found that the 
money raised for the Canal project had been one milliard 
three hundred millions of francs, while the sum expended 
on construction had been only five hundred millions, and 
four hundred and forty millions, it was calculated, had been 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 1 5 

consumed in extravagant salaries and in the profits of con- 
tractors ; there remained, therefore, three hundred and sixty 
million francs unaccounted for. Considering the multitude 
of investors throughout France in the five-hundred-franc 
bonds of the Canal, it is curious that at first the financial 
troubles of the great enterprise seemed to inspire litde 
terror in the minds of the general public. People looked 
upon the affairs of the Canal as a matter to be settled by 
Parliament, and no personal interest in what simply con- 
cerns Parliament seems of late years to excite much interest 
in rural France. 

But the suicide of Baron Joseph Reinach, the financier, 
to whom the affairs of the Canal had been intrusted, gave 
an individual interest to the affair. Dr. Cornelius Herz, 
who had been in a sense Baron Reinach's partner, and 
Arton, then their intermediary in all transactions which in- 
volved payment of money to journalists or legislators, 
were at once sought for by the pohce. 

Toward the close of 1892, Baron Reinach had had a 
fierce quarrel with Cornelius Herz, who in their last inter- 
view threatened to make compromising revelations. A few 
hours later the Baron was found dead. No inquest (or 
what in France is its equivalent) was held, and the official 
report of his death was that the deceased died of apoplexy. 
This turned all eyes in France on the affair in which Rei- 
nach had been implicated. Among his papers were found 
lists of deputies and journalists, who had received money 
for bolstering up the Panama enterprise ; and Herz, who 
fled to England, carried off with him much more precise 
and important evidence of parhamentary corruption. 

Dr. Herz was the son of a Bavarian Jew. He had taken 
advantage of the United States naturalization laws to 
obtain our citizenship, and as an American savant he had 
received from the French Government of the Republic a 
high position in the Legion of Honor. 

Great subsidies were paid to journalists ^ for supporting 
the Canal interests in Parliament. In France newspapers 
1 In the year 1S82, 1,320,000 francs. 



1 6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

receive little pecuniary advantage from advertisements. 
In England and America they thrive on what they receive 
from them, for their subscription lists barely pay their pub- 
lishing expenses. In France, as this source of revenue is not 
available, journalists look to the sums paid them to support 
schemes, or causes in which their patrons are interested. 
According to the French code of right and wrong, it was 
legitimate business for journalists to write up the Panama 
lottery scheme, and to receive money for doing so. 

In 1888, when Boulangism was a menace to the Re- 
public, M. Floquet, then Prime Minister, and M. Rouvier, 
who was Prime Minister the year before, forced the Panama 
Company to hand over to the Government fifty thousand 
francs to be used, not for piercing the Isthmus, but for com- 
bating the " enemies of the Government " on matters wholly 
unconnected with the Panama Canal. For this act Floquet 
afterwards defended himself feebly before the Chamber at 
the close of December, 1892, when he pleaded that the 
superior interest of the Republic, imperilled by the party 
of Boulanger, justified the levy of such a subsidy for the 
good of France. 

"The good of France!" — that formula seems of late 
years to have been made to cover a multitude of sins. 
It had been theoretically supposed that the fall of the 
Second Empire meant the fall of corruption and of all 
other vices ; the Republic was to bring in integrity, patriot- 
ism, self-abnegation, and all the austere virtues. 

Alas ! the Parliamentary system (at least among the 
Latin races) carries out this programme less and less, year 
after year. 

The tragedy of Joseph Reinach, " driven to death, it was 
said," writes Mr. Bodley, " by menaces and demands of 
blackmail," roused the public, " and then succeeded a 
period the like of which had never before been witnessed 
in a great capital, save in a time of revolution." It is 
curious to look through the pages of Paris newspapers at 
the close of 1892 ; they are full of the most clever, bitter 
caricatures, aimed against the integrity of deputies, minis- 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 17 

ters, and the leading men of France. The very air seemed 
full of denunciation. "Is any man honest?" was the 
burning question of the day. 

At the close of " France in the Nineteenth Century," 
I gave an estimate of the opinion entertained of M. Ferdi- 
nand de Lesseps by foreigners, of his character, and of the 
services he had rendered to his own country, and to the 
world. To him Renan said when he took his seat in 
the Academic, April 23, 1885, " After Lamartine you have, 
I think, been the man the most beloved of our century." 
But no one in high places is safe in France from the ruin 
wrought by a political cyclone. 

Ferdinand de Lesseps was born at Versailles in 1805. 
His father had been Consul in Egypt in the days of 
Mehemet Ali ; his grandfather had also been in the diplo- 
matic service. 

Ferdinand de Lesseps was educated with a view to mak- 
ing diplomacy his profession, and from 1825 to 1854 he 
filled various high diplomatic positions in Spain, Egypt, 
Italy, and elsewhere. He was cousin to the Empress 
Eugenie, their grandmothers having been sisters. In 1854, 
having quitted the diplomatic service, he felt himself at 
liberty to carry out a project which for ten years had been 
ripening in his mind. 

He went to Egypt, where his plan for piercing the Isth- 
mus of Suez was approved by Said Pasha, who had just 
been appointed Viceroy. A survey was made by eminent 
engineers, who pronounced that the Red Sea and the 
Mediterranean had the same level. This was disputed by 
engineers in England, among others by Stephenson, a great 
authority on railroads in Great Britain. On political grounds 
Lord Palmerston was a prominent opposer of the scheme. 
But M. de Lesseps visited England, and succeeded in win- 
ning the confidence of Prince Albert, Mr. Gladstone, Lord 
Clarendon, and others. A capital of two millions of francs 
was raised, and in 1859 the work was begun. Said Pasha 
himself took a large number of shares, which sixteen years 
later were purchased from his successor by the English 



1 8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Government. England thus became the largest shareholder 
in the Canal, which has since proved of inestimable service 
to her in her relations with the East and with her Indian 
empire. 

In November, 1869, the Canal was opened with imposing 
ceremonies, the Empress of France leading the procession 
of royal and distinguished persons. In " France in the 
Nineteenth Century " I gave a full account of the brilliant 
proceedings of that day. 

The man who had thus achieved a triumph for France 
on the eve of her misfortunes, was loaded with honors by 
his countrymen, and stood prominent among men of en- 
terprise in the eyes of the world. His activity did not, 
however, cease ; though he had passed the age to which 
the Psalmist limits the working powers of man, he pro- 
moted an enterprise to pierce the Isthmus of Corinth, and 
he looked favorably on the scheme to submerge the 
Desert of Sahara, and thus convert it into an inland sea. 
But there was another isthmus left to conquer, and he 
could not be at peace while its difficulties were unsub- 
dued. In 1879, in an evil hour for himself and France, 
he began, as I have said, to organize a company to cut a 
tide-water canal through the Isthmus of Panama. His 
great name commended the project to thousands of people 
of small means ; but in ten years little or no work had 
been accomplished, and the company was reduced to 
bankruptcy. 

At the close of 1892 Ferdinand de Lesseps and the other 
directors of the Panama Canal were indicted for breach of 
trust and misappropriation of funds. The old man, who 
was lying paralyzed in his country home, had known noth- 
ing of the disreputable methods adopted by his son in the 
vain hope of saving the enterprise, nor did he ever know 
that he himself had been condemned to five years' impris- 
onment and a heavy fine. This sentence was quashed on 
technical grounds by the Court of Cassation. Young 
Lesseps and some others suffered fine and imprisonment. 
But all painful intelligence was, as far as possible, kept 




FERDINAND DE LESSEPS. 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 19 

from the aged father, who died, let us hope, peacefully, at 
his country home near Paris, Dec. 7, 1894, at the age of 
eighty-nine. 

The following extract is part of an article upon his death, 
by M. Emile Ollivier, published in the ''Figaro," Dec. 8, 
1894: — 

" He died without suffering, without any last words, without 
a groan, indeed, after the terrible misfortunes which had not 
spared him, nor those who were his nearest and dearest ; life 
seemed to fade out of his frail body, already enfeebled by 
incessant toil and by the cruel reproaches heaped upon him 
by Ids fellow-men in return for all that he had done for them. 

" One of the actions due to the weakness of a government 
only anxious to satisfy public clamor, or rather public delirium, 
was, permitting to be brought against such a man a charge of 
fraud and abuse of confidence. Such words in connection 
with his name are sacrilege ! 

"//>a swindler! He! the most disinterested of men! A 
man who cared little for gain, who lived with the frugality of 
an Arab and the simplicity of a patriarch ! 

" It may be said, indeed, that he did not give sufficient over- 
sight to the details of his counting-room ; but he never forgot 
what was due to honor. 

" His second enterprise was not less important or less hopeful 
than his first, which connected the Red Sea with the Mediter. 
ranean. It would have realized for France equal profit and 
renown. But between the execution of these projects lay a 
difference. The Suez Canal was undertaken under the protec- 
tion of an enlightened and generous viceroy and a French 
emperor, both deeply interested in the work, both ready, if 
necessary, to offer the great Frenchman encouragement and 
assistance. 

" When he undertook the Panama Canal, he engaged in it with 
shameless greedy speculators indifferent to national interests, 
ready to grab at anything that might serve themselves. These 
men have ruined both his work and him. The Viceroy gave 
him millions like a Caliph in the Arabian Nights ; the speculators 
robbed him of millions like highwaymen. 

" To the last moment, in spite of everything, he believed in the 
ultimate success of his Panama enterprise, and, like Benvenuto 
Cellini when he flung into the fire of his furnace his furniture 
and all else that he could lay his hands on, that his statue, his 



20 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

bronze Perseus, — "my poor dear Perseus," ^ he calls it in his 
memoirs, — might come out, complete, perfect, and beautiful, so 
Lesseps, at the last, accepted every assistance that was offered 
him without too closely examining whence the money was to 
come. 

" But the dreadful moment arrived at last when he perceived 
that the great work would not be accomplished, and that it had 
swallowed up the savings of the poor who had had faith in him, 
and trusted him, — the poor, of whose confidence and affection 
he had been more proud than of the patronage of kings. 

" I saw him for the last time in his little study in the Rue 
Montaigne. He was sitting before a fire with a blanket over 
his knees. At the sound of my voice he rose, and said ' Ah ! 
there you are ! I am glad to see you. You are coming to 
breakfast, of course.' Then he sat down again without waiting 
for my answer, without another word, and resumed his gaze 
into the fire. 

" They told me that he sat thus for hours, and that his thoughts 
were of the poor, who had given what they could ill spare to 
realize his project. He seemed to see them crowding round 
him as he gazed into the embers; and when, brought back for 
a moment to reality, he had welcomed me as an old friend, he 
relapsed into his painful reverie as before." 

Eleven persons were prosecuted in all for criminal com- 
plicity in the Panama affair. Six of these had at one time 
or another been Cabinet Ministers. One of them, M. 
Baihaut, ex-Minister of Public Works, had the courage to 
plead guilty ; for which he was bitterly reproached, not 
only by his colleagues, but by the public, which considered 
he had shown want of patriotism by admitting the truth. 
He defended himself by saying that he was by education 
a civil engineer, and had considered the money he accepted 
as a fee for a professional opinion. 

Nothing was brought to light concerning the disposition 
of the greater part of the deficient funds. " Nothing was 
clear but that millions had disappeared, and that the 
persons punished could account for only a trifling sum." 

It was thought that Arton and Dr. Herz might have 

1 The statue stands now in Florence in the Mercato Vecchio, in 
the Loggia dei Lanzi. 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOr 21 

thrown light on the affair, in which probably they were 
deeply implicated, but both had escaped ; Herz went to 
England, whence he was not extradited, as certificates from 
his doctors pronounced him so dangerously out of health 
at Bournemouth that his life might have been forfeited by 
his removal. He is reported to have said : " Baihaut's 
real crime was his confession ; for there is many a colleague 
of his in the Chamber who ought to be his colleague in 
Etampes jail." 

French honor was, however, supposed to be satisfied by 
the exposure and punishment of a very {q.w ; and the 
Panama scandal, which at one time seemed likely to 
involve so many high officials in disgrace, was hushed up 
as speedily as possible. 

In 1897, however, the case was again opened. Arton, 
who had been extradited, promised to give the names of 
the deputies and high officials to whom he had paid money. 
Dr. Herz promised the same thing, if a committee would 
wait on him at Bournemouth. Some arrests took place in 
consequence of Arton's revelations, and an investigation 
was ordered, but the matter was suffered to drop quietly. 
M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who was public prosecutor 
at the time, did his best to put obstacles in the way of 
investigation. 

Strange to say that while in 1892 and 1893 dramatists, 
journalists, and caricaturists found no subject so popular as 
the general suspicion of parliamentary corruption, it played 
very httle part in the provincial elections. When a candi- 
date for re-election whose character had been smirched 
during the Panama investigation presented himself to his 
constituents, they appeared to take little heed of the great 
Panama scandal. They re-elected him on the ground of 
his services to themselves, or to their part of the country. 
The ordinary French elector is apathetic with regard to 
matters that do not affect his private interests. And 
yet, says Mr. Bodley, " The French as a nation are remark- 
able for their integrity, which, combined with self-denying 
industry, is of a high order." 



22 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Other events in France most interesting to foreigners 
in 1892 were: first, the pubhcation of an EncycUcal ad- 
dressed to French CathoUcs by Pope Leo XIII. ; secondly, 
the activity of Anarchists j and, thirdly, the rapid changes 
of Ministry. 

When the year began, M. de Freycinet (classed as a 
moderate Republican) was Prime Minister, but by February 
18 his Cabinet was outvoted in the Chamber on a bill 
concerning the relations of Church and State. President 
Carnot found it very difificult to induce any leading states- 
man to form a Cabinet, but at last the task was undertaken 
by M. Loubet. That ill-starred Cabinet — which from 
that day to this has brought trouble into the lives of almost 
all the men included in it — contained M. de Freycinet 
as Minister of War, and M. Rouvier as Minister of Finance. 

In the early part of 1892, a body of French Bishops and 
Cardinals published a complaint concerning the situation 
of French Catholics in the Departments. They enumer- 
ated a number of wrongs that the Church and its clergy 
suffered from the State. Among other things they com- 
plained of the divorce law, the secularization of the schools, 
the exclusion of religion and the religious orders from charit- 
able institutions, the enforced military service of seminarists 
(young men studying for the ministry), and the control of 
church buildings, not by churchwardens or vestries, but 
by the municipalities. They added that in accordance 
with the orders of the Holy See, and with Catholic tradi- 
tions, they would refrain from opposing the form of govern- 
ment that France had chosen, but Catholics were enjoined, 
when laws were passed which violated their consciences or 
encroached upon ecclesiastical rights, to oppose them by a 
firm resistance. 

This brought out in February an Encyclical from the 
Pope explaining the relation of the Church to Civil Govern- 
ment. French Catholics were exhorted loyally to accept 
the Republic, and to abstain from overthrowing it or enroll- 
ing themselves among its enemies. The Pope reminded 
them that the Church had always upheld Civil Government 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 23 

as the corrective of anarchy and disorder. He urged Cath- 
ohcs to stand by the Concordat framed in 1891, even if 
all its provisions did not meet their views. But the Min- 
ister of Justice and Public Worship in the Cabinet, in 
which M. Ribot had succeeded M. Loubet as Prime Min- 
ister, by no means met half-way the Pope's conciliatory 
counsels. Law proceedings were begun against pious Cleri- 
cals, which almost amounted to religious persecution and 
engendered among Catholics very bitter feelings. Besides 
this, ardent Legitimists and Clericals refused to believe 
that Pope Leo could have meant what he said, and con- 
tinued to hold themselves pledged to restore Monarchy in 
France. This, on May 3, brought a letter from the Pope 
to the French Cardinals, enjoining them — and all French 
Catholics — to recognize unreservedly the existing govern- 
ment ; and His Holiness added : " The men who would 
subordinate everything to the previous triumph of their 
respective parties, even on the plea that that triumph is 
fittest for the defence of religion, would, by a perilous per- 
version of ideas, place politics, which divide, before religion, 
which unites." 

This brought a large body of Catholics over to the group 
called Moderate Republicans. These new recruits were 
called Les Rallies. They deserted from the doctrine that 
for twenty years had been held by ardent Catholics in 
France ; namely, that, to be a good Christian, a Frenchman 
must support the cause of Legitimism. This doctrine died 
a sudden death, slain by the Pope's Encyclical. Its demise 
was a severe blow to the Comte de Paris, who had hoped 
to rally his followers by the cry of " Church and Throne ! " 

While these things were in progress, Anarchism became 
rampant in France. Anarchism differs from Socialism in 
that it aims to destroy all government and all existing 
institutions. Socialism, on the contrary, would invest the 
State with complete power over everything belonging to 
society. 

Anarchists in France may, it is said, be roughly divided 
into four classes. 



24 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

First, those belonging to the Anarchist Federation. This 
is an association containing many ex-Communists. Its 
objects are poUtical. Its members will join any party 
opposed to any government, and lend it their votes and 
influence, but they do not employ violence. 

The second and third are the Leagues of Internationals 
and Anti- patriots. These include political refugees from all 
nations, — Italians, Germans, Russians, Poles, Hungarians, 
Belgians, Irishmen, and Spaniards. Their principal object 
is to promote mutiny in armies, and insurrection generally. 

Fourthly, there is the Cosmopolitan League. This is an 
organization which employs dynamite and assassination. 
The most advanced group of these people call themselves 
Independents, and act accordingly. They are divided into 
small bodies not exceeding twelve. 

On May i, 1892, a bomb was exploded before the house 
of a fashionable lady, a princess residing in the Faubourg 
St. Germain. Two weeks later an attempt was made to 
blow up a judge who had recently presided at the trial of 
some Anarchists, and about the same date a bomb was 
thrown into a barrack full of soldiers. Other similar out- 
rages were attempted, especially against judges who had 
sentenced men convicted of disorder. Dynamite had for 
some time been stolen in small quantities from government 
stores in various parts of France. All through the month 
of May judicial and official circles in Paris lived in a state 
of terror. The worst outrage took place in the Rue de 
Clichy, where a house was wrecked and several persons 
injured. These attempts were traced to a man known as 
Ravachol. He had already murdered an old man in the 
provinces, and with his plunder — thirty thousand francs — 
had eluded the police. He was at last betrayed by a con- 
federate, and arrested in a cafe. This cafe was promptly 
blown up by his accomplices, and the proprietor, who had 
assisted at Ravachol's arrest, was severely injured. Ravachol 
was guillotined, but his sentence was for the murder com- 
mitted a year before. 

In November, 1S92, fell the Loubet Cabinet, and the re- 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 2$ 

mainder of the year was kept in excitement concerning 
the Panama scandal. 

The year 1893 opened with pubUc excitement occasioned 
by suspicion of every one who held a high position. The 
French public when in delirium has " treason on the 
brain." 

After the trial of deputies, senators, ex-ministers, and 
others accused of connection with the mysteries of the 
Panama affair, there was a new Cabinet, the Premier of 
which was M. Charles Dupuy. A lull fell on French poli- 
tics for a few weeks, during which time excitement was 
supplied by the " Cocarde " newspaper, the former organ 
of Boulangism. Its editor announced that he had pur- 
chased from one Norton, a man employed at the English 
Embassy, copies of private letters that had passed between 
Sir Thomas Lister of the Foreign Office and Mr. Austin 
Lee of the English Embassy, which letters disclosed the 
names of journalists of high character, deputies and others, 
who were engaged in plotting with English agents for 
the overthrow of the French Government. The Prime 
Minister and the Minister for Foreign Affairs had been 
shown these letters (that is, their copies) and had accepted 
them as genuine. But when, in the Chamber, M. Millevoye, 
a Boulangist deputy, read aloud a French translation of 
the documents, their clumsy imitation became evident. 
They contained such a jumble of ignorant allusions to 
French politics and international affairs that no diplo- 
matist could possibly have written them. Their style, too, 
was not that of an English gentleman. M. Millevoye was 
hooted from the tribune ; and the Chamber, by a vote of 
389 to 4, passed on to the order of the day, "regretting 
that it had wasted time in listening to such calumnies." 

We may do well to remember that this epidemic of 
forgery, and of stealing false papers from a Foreign Em- 
bassy, began in the autumn of 1893, the very time when 
in the Intelligence Department of the War Office subordi- 
nates were engaged in similar atrocities. 

A senator brought in a bill to suppress public indecency 



26 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

in Paris. Tiie shop windows on the Boulevards displayed 
abominable pictures, and all accounts tell us that Paris (at 
no time remarkable for public propriety) had never been 
so bad even under the Second Empire. Among other 
reforms that the senator who took public decency in charge 
was desirous to carry out, was the suppression of a certain 
ball, called the Bal des Quat'-z-Arts, annually given by 
the students of the Latin Quarter. This entertainment 
was especially patronized by the art students, and its 
details were arranged by them. These students, profes- 
sionally familiar with denuded females, probably looked 
on the public and artistic exhibition of their "models" 
with much less sense of its indecency than that which 
horrified the unartistic Philistine. 

The ball took place at the close of June, and the 
" models " and managers were prosecuted for the exhibi- 
tion. The students were indignant at the interference of 
the police with what they maintained was a private enter- 
tainment. A riot took place in the Quarter, during which 
a young man had his skull fractured by a metal match- 
box, thrown by a policeman. This roused the students to 
fury. They assembled before the Chamber of Deputies, 
calling for protection against the police and the restitu- 
tion of their right to carry on their entertainments in their 
own way. They also clamored for the deposition of the 
Prefect of the Seine, or the resignation of the Prime 
Minister ; the Chamber refused to take any notice of these 
demands, and the students renewed the rioting. On the 
second day the socialists and roughs in Paris, eager for 
a fray, took the part of the rioters against the Government. 

Here is a letter I received at that time. The writer 
was an art student, who had been absent from Paris since 
the beginning of May.^ He was returning by way of 
Munich and Strasburg, and thus writes of his arrival in 
Paris on the morning of July 9, 1893 : — 

1 This letter gives a graphic picture of Paris in an hneiite. I 
saw the city in similar frenzies in May, 1839, and February, 
1848. — E.W.L. 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 2/ 

" Here I am back again in tlie old place. The journey up 
from Munich was a very pleasant one, and not too fatiguing. 
When I got to Paris (Tuesday, 5.30 A. M.) the first thing I saw 
was newspaper kiosks and other street buildings in ruins. 
I asked my cocker what it meant, and he said, ' Une petite 
legerete des etudiaftts.'' The concierge, however, gave me a 
full account of the matter. 

" How curious that our Bal des Quat'-z-Arts should have 
started these riots ! Tuesday afternoon they buried the chap 
who had been killed, and in the evening I had my first expe- 
rience of Paris in a state of excitement. I came down to 
dinner and was just starting from this street, the Rue de 
Ste. Placide, into the Rue de Rennes, when I saw a crowd at 
the other end, by St. Germain des Pres, and saw several kiosks 
in flames. I stopped to see the excitement, and I could see all 
very well, being on Montparnasse, and looking down. The 
mob had made a barricade, and had rifled a gun shop, and 
were quite happy and satisfied, when suddenly the Garde 
Municipale charged up the street. I wish you could have seen 
the people run, and the shopkeepers put up their shutters ! I 
made for Leon's restaurant, and just got there as the military 
came past, using their swords pretty freely. After I had had 
my dinner, I walked down and looked at the barricade. It 
was made of an omnibus, two tram cars, and several fiacres. 
The mob stopped all the fiacres coming from the Gare Mont- 
parnasse, and made their occupants descend. If the cocker 
made any fuss, they killed his horses. I saw three dead ones. 
The French are brutal to horses. There was fighting that 
night and the next day, but things are getting quiet now. 
Still, I think July 14 may bring trouble. It is always worse on 
hot days, because the men drink all the afternoon, and in the 
evening they go forth and fight. Apart from this, I have had 
a very quiet week. Julien's is nearly deserted." 

The Socialists took advantage of the emeute originated 
by the students, and assembled in force round their Labor 
Exchange. Up to 1889 the word " Socialist " was meant to 
define all those who aspired to ameliorate society in favor 
of the working classes. Every man in France who gave 
his attention to social questions willingly accepted the 
name of Socialist. It was the same in England, where 
Charles Kingsley and Maurice were proud to be classed 
as Christian Socialists. 



28 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

" All advocates of social reform," says M. Yves-Guyot, 
himself a Socialist before 1889, "worked for freedom of 
the press and the right to hold meetings." They also 
demanded from the Government some change in the laws 
relating to trades unions, 

A law was passed in 1884 authorizing syndicates of 
labor under certain restrictions, but no sanction was given 
to trades unions unless they would join the syndicates, 
which were in a measure responsible to government. This 
the trades unions refused to do, but kept up their organi- 
zations, which were in fact illegal. 

The Cabinet, when the student riots began, was on the 
point of taking steps to compel trades unions to conform 
to the law before the 5th of July. Members of these 
unions assembled round the Bureau de Travail, or Labor 
Exchange, and determined to resist. By this time Social- 
ism had become a political party, whose aim was " to secure 
the intervention of the state in all contracts for labor, 
always directed against the employer and to the exclusive 
profit of the laborer." 

The Government, as we have seen, called out the mili- 
tary and dispersed some thousands of people congregated 
around the Labor Exchange. At this point the students 
abandoned their allies. The fight was between the labor 
unions and the police, who were assisted by the military. 

On July 6, the Government closed the Labor Exchange, 
a large and very expensive building, where leaders of the 
riot had their headquarters. Then the affair was over, 
that is to say, so far as street fighting was concerned ; but 
the quarrel was kept up in the Chamber of Deputies. 

The attention, not only of Paris, but of all France, was 
soon after turned to what was considered a great national 
triumph, — the friendly visit of the Russian fleet to the 
harbor of Toulon, in return for the visit paid to Russia by 
the French fleet at Cronstadt in 1891. 

This return visit had been delayed because of Alex- 
ander IIL's personal antipathy to French politics and 
French morals. But at last a visit paid by two of the 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 29 

Grand Dukes to M. Carnot at Nancy during the manceu- 
vres of the French troops dispelled the Czar's fears that 
Nihilists domiciled in France would take advantage of the 
occasion for an outbreak of violence or assassination. 

France had deeply felt her European isolation. She felt 
that the Triple Alliance — that of Germany, Austria, and 
Italy — was a menace to her power and influence, and she 
eagerly welcomed the prospect of an alliance with Russia, 
the nation that a priori would have seemed least likely 
to attract the sympathy of a newly made republic ; but 
from the day when the French fleet visited Cronstadt, and 
was received with fetes and rejoicings, the French public 
looked eagerly for an official enunciation of the word 
"alliance. " 

When the Russian fleet appeared at Toulon, its recep- 
tion was magnificent. The city was adorned with French 
and Russian flags ; enthusiasts flocked to it from every 
part of France ; women dressed themselves in the Russian 
colors ; addresses of welcome and assurances of brotherly 
regard were made by public bodies. The French people 
seemed in a frenzy of self-congratulation, accepting it as 
certain that the visit of the Russian fleet prognosticated 
that the long isolation of France had come to an end, 
and that she had secured a powerful friend and political 
sympathy. 

The Russian Admiral and sixty of his officers were 
escorted to Paris by the President of the Republic and by 
the President of the Municipal Council at Toulon. The 
distinguished position occupied by the latter personage 
on this occasion was one of the queer ironies of fate not 
uncommon in French politics. He had once served in 
the galleys at Toulon as a Communist convict, and had 
been subsequently conspicuous by a eulogy that he pro- 
nounced upon those Nihilists who had so cruelly slaughtered 
Alexander II. 

Paris, like Toulon, vv^ent mad over the presence of the 
Russian officers ; the tricolor and Russian flags adorned the 
streets ; houses and signs were draped in yellow and black, 



30 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

and the streets were alive with the same colors. Every- 
thing was done that could be done to fete the naval visitors, 
and to rejoice over their coming ; enthusiasm and fraternity 
were the watchwords of the day. And when, after a week, 
the officers returned to their ships, they were loaded with 
presents for themselves and the Imperial household. The 
Russian press was inspired with delight at the prospect of 
this new alliance ; and the Czar, unwilling to damp the en- 
thusiasm of two nations, sent the following despatch to 
President Carnot : — 

" At the moment when the Russian squadron is quitting 
France, I am anxious to express to you how much I am touched 
by, and grateful for, the warm and splendid reception which 
our sailors have everywhere found on French soil. The testi- 
monies of warm friendship which have been once more mani- 
fested with so much eloquence will add a fresh link to those 
already uniting the two countries, and will contribute, I hope, 
to the strengthening of the general peace, — the object of their 
efforts and of their most constant wishes." 

To this telegram from the Czar, President Carnot in 
corresponding terms made a cordial reply. 

The privilege of all French ports and navy-yards was ac- 
corded to the Russian fleets, in common with the French 
navy, and it is said that financially the rapprochement of 
the two nations was beneficial to them both. 

On one of the last days of the year 1893 an Anarchist 
named Vaillant, sitting in the Strangers' Gallery of the 
Chamber of Deputies, flung a bomb at the President, M. 
Dupuy. Happily, a woman sitting near seized the assassin's 
arm and spoiled his aim ; but the bomb, being loaded with 
nails and scraps of iron, wounded many bystanders when 
it exploded. After a few moments of confusion the Presi- 
dent of the Chamber called the Deputies to order, and the 
business of the day was proceeded with as if nothing had 
happened. Vaillant was very anxious that his trial should 
be considered not a political, but a social crime ; and he 
was in fact found guilty of an attempt to murder and of 
the destruction of public property. He was guillotined, 



PRESIDENT SADI-CARNOT 3 I 

but his execution and the arrests which followed it were the 
signals for fresh Anarchist crimes. A vigorous campaign, 
especially against foreign Anarchists, was kept up by the 
police. Hundreds were arrested, but not one in ten was 
brought to trial. The mania for bomb-throwing spread 
even to England, where an Anarchist on his way to Green- 
wich with his bomb in a bag, accidentally exploded it and 
killed himself. One of the most atrocious attempts at 
wholesale assassination was that of a man who went to the 
door of the fashionable Church of the Madeleine during ser- 
vice, purposing to throw a bomb into the crowd of kneel- 
ing worshippers. Happily, the heavy leathern spring door 
at the entrance swung back against him as his hand was 
poised to throw the bomb, and spoiled his aim. Nothing 
was destroyed but part of the vestibule. 

These murderous attempts, the arrests that they occa- 
sioned, and the trials of their perpetrators continued all 
through the winter and spring. In June, 1S94, Lyons 
undertook to hold an exhibition of arts, science, and in- 
dustries. To this the President of the Republic was invited ; 
and M. Carnot, always solicitous to fulfil any semi-social 
political duty, willingly lent his presence to the occasion. 
He arrived at Lyons, and spent one night there. The next 
day, Sunday, he went in state to view the Exhibition. He 
then attended a banquet in the Chamber of Commerce, 
and about nine p. m. took his seat in his carriage to drive 
to the theatre, where a performance in his honor was to 
conclude the day's proceedings. While at the banquet he 
had dismissed the body-guard appointed to attend him by 
the Municipality. Suddenly a young man pressed forward, 
holding what seemed to be a roll of paper in his hand. He 
sprang upon the step of the carriage, and plunged a dag- 
ger into the President's abdomen. Bystanders seized the 
assassin, and with some difficulty the police prevented his 
being summarily lynched. 

The President was taken to the Prefecture, and died 
soon after midnight. 

The murderer, as they arrested him, shouted, " Vive 



32 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

r Anarchic ! " His trade was that of a baker. He was a 
native of Italy, but having fallen under the suspicion of the 
police at home, had sought refuge in France, where he 
worked for a time at Cette, a French port on the 
Mediterranean. 



CHAPTER II 

PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 

nPHE tragic death of President Sadi-Carnot took place 
-*■ on June 25, 1894, and he was laid to rest in the 
Pantheon a week later. Already, as his term of office 
would have expired six months later (in December, 1894), 
lively discussions as to his successor had taken place. 
Some persons thought that M. Carnot had been intriguing 
for a second term. They were not aware that he had said 
in confidence to an ex-minister, whom he wished to induce 
to form a Cabinet, that he had definitely resolved to refuse 
a renomination, on constitutional as well as on personal 
grounds. M. Brisson, who might be ranked as a Moderate 
Radical, was talked of as likely to prove the successful 
candidate, but the ex-Prime Minister, M. Casimir-P^rier, 
who, only a few weeks before, by a vote of the Chamber, had 
fallen from his high office, was chosen by the joint vote of 
Senators and Deputies, who gave him a decided majority. 

M. Casimir-Pdrier belonged to a family which, for two 
hundred years, had been distinguished in France. Its 
members never boasted the possession of the particule 
(the aristocratic de which distinguishes the born nobleman), 
but they were wealthy landowners in Dauphin^. One 
man in the family was an archbishop in the time of Louis 
XVIIL, another a Peer of France in Louis Philippe's House 
of Peers, while another was that monarch's most distin- 
guished Prime Minister. But the wealthy P^riers of our 
own day were classed among the bourgeoisie, — that class 
of Frenchmen equally ^ detested by aristocrats and manual 

1 A labor member of the House of Commons once related to me 
his experiences at a Trade Union Congress in Paris. He said that he 

3 



34 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

laborers. I think Louis Blanc first started popular enmity 
to the bourgeoisie, the only stable element in the French 
urban population. They are Philistines in politics, capital- 
ists in trade, and thus form a class hateful to Socialists 
throughout Europe and America. 

No sooner was M. Casimir-P^rier elected President 
than all the low newspapers opposed to the bourgeoisie 
denounced him, because of his ancestral connection with 
"the middle-class Monarchy," — in other words, the reign 
of Louis Philippe. He was also denounced as one of the 
owners of a certain coal mine famous for strikes, and was 
made the object of attacks inspired by Socialist leaders. 
The utter depravity of the Parisian journals of the lower 
class then and subsequently, the abomination of their daily 
volleys of abuse against government, law, and justice, " is," 
says the "Journal des D^bats," "unequalled by the worst 
performances of low-class journalism in other countries. 
Incriminating names are shamelessly applied to the highest 
dignitaries of state, and are echoed by vulgar tongues in 
cafh and other places of public resort, without shame or 
reserve, mingled with the sacred words peuple, patrie, 
etc." 

Thus, from the day after his election Casimir-P^rier 
found his honored name, up to that time always associated 
with the cause of popular liberty, turned into a reproach. 
Mr. Bodley says that, " beneath an exterior of resolute 
sturdiness, he had not the calm temperament, free from 
self-consciousness, of M. Carnot. . . . His habit of perus- 
ing the journals containing gross libels on his character 

had gone to France entirely ignorant of the language, but to his last 
day he should never forget one word repeated in every sentence of 
the French delegates' speeches with every intonation of hatred and 
contempt; the word was bourgeois. This estimable Englishman, 
though representing thousands of working-men, was in appearance 
and in mode of thought a typical bourgeois from the French point of 
view, as dissimilar to his as the Carmagnole, with which his French 
colleagues terrified him, was to the pious exercises which he was 
wont to conduct at his Sunday-school at home. — Fratice, by J. E. C. 
Bodley. 




CASIMIR PERIER. 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 35 

and incitements to violence kept constantly before his 
eyes the causes which might render him unpopular." 

A trained statesman, head of a Cabinet which had fallen 
from power only a few weeks before, M. Casimir-P^rier 
naturally thought himself not only competent, but in duty 
bound, to have a voice in the selection of his ministers, 
and not to be kept in the dark as to their proceedings. 
The Dupuy Cabinet had resigned on the election of a new 
President, but M. Casimir-P6rier requested them to resume 
their portfolios. This Cabinet contained among other 
names some that in 1899 became only too well known to 
us, besides some men who have distinguished themselves 
for integrity and diplomatic skill ; these last were M. 
Hanotaux, Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. Delcassd, Min- 
ister for the Colonies, and M. F61ix Faure, Minister of 
Marine. Among the former was General Mercier, Minister 
of War, while General Boisdeffre was about this time made 
head of the General Staff. 

The principal event which interests the world in general 
during the seven months' administration of M. Casimir- 
P^rier was one so obscure and apparently unimportant at 
the time that it is thus reported in Appleton's admirable 
"Annual Cyclopedia " for 1894 : — 

" Military Scandal. Captain Albert \_sic\ Dreyfus, an 
artillery officer of Alsatian-Jewish extraction, was tried on 
December 22, by court-martial, for treason. A letter in his 
handwriting had been found by a detective in the house of an 
attache oi a foreign legation, containing information and prom- 
ises of information regarding the plans and armament of 
French fortresses. He was convicted by his brother officers, 
and the severest penalty applicable in time of peace — namely, 
imprisonment for life in a fortress, and degradation from all 
military rank and honors — was pronounced." 

The general public accepted, with full faith in the in- 
tegrity and ability of the General Staff, the verdict of 
the court-martial. The cry, " I am innocent ! " no more 
reached the public ear than in former days a wail of despair 
came through the stone walls of the Bastile. 



36 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

On a bitter cold morning, January 5, 1895, the Degrada- 
tion of Dreyfus took place. Here is the scene as related 
by Adolph Brisson,^ an eye-witness, who, like most other 
Frenchmen at that time, believed Dreyfus a traitor, guilty 
of delivering papers stolen from the War Office to a 
national enemy : — 

"January 4, 8 a.m. I am off for the £cole Militaire. A 
bitter wind is blowing along the Quais. Many fiacres are 
making their way to the Champ de Mars. Along the streets 
officers are hurrying in dress uniforms, the collars of their coats 
turned up about their ears, and in all directions are to be seen 
the detachments — old soldiers in marching order, fresh recruits 
in jacket and cap — who are to be present at the performance. 
The civilians allowed to penetrate to the inner court are not 
numerous. The bulk of the crowd has had to stay without the 
gates. You can tell that it is rough, and ready to display its 
indignation. 

" 8.45. The last of the troops have arrived. They are drawn 
up on the four sides of the court, and presently Dreyfus will 
have to pass before them, subjected for more than half a mile 
to the silent scorn of these thousands of men. What a Calvary ! 
Some hundred yards have been reserved for the reporters, who 
draw up in line, and toe the mark like common soldiers. 

*' Meanwhile the time draws near; we have seen the arrival of 
the prison van, which has been drawn up by the side of a build- 
ing. It is he ! We imagine him there awaiting the moment. 
He hears from afar the click of the bayonets, the tread of the 
soldiers summoned to be present at his torture. To what 
anguish must he not be a prey ! Will he not wear the pallor 
of death when he is brought forth before us ? Will he be able 
to stand upright ? Or will he not give way for one moment? 
And at this thought, notwithstanding our horror of his crime, 

1 From " La Republique Fran9aise." Translated in February, 1898, 
for " Littell's Living Age," No. 2797. 

2 We know now what was passing in the little inner room of the 
ficole Militaire, where the victim was walking up and down muttering 
indistinctly an anguished monologue, crying always, " I am innocent," 
and then, in broken words alluding to the offer of General Mercier, 
a few days before, urged on him for an hour by du Paty de Clam : 
"Only confess that you are guilty of giving copies of documents to 
the German Government to get important information in return, and 
you shall be spared the anguish of this terrible degradation." 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-FERIEU 7)7 

we are overwhelmed with pity for the unfortunate man, so 
cruel does his expiation seem. 

"9 A.M. Barely has the lirst stroke sounded from the great 
clock of the Ecole Militaire when General Darras lifts his sabre. 
The trumpets sound, and we perceive in an angle of the court 
a little group consisting of four artillerymen commanded by a 
sergeant and surrounding an officer in full uniform. 

" This officer is Alfred Dreyfus. 

" He raises his head ; his bearing is assured, but perfectly 
natural ; he does not overdo his calmness. You would say he 
was making his way tranquilly to the parade-ground. At 
twenty paces from the General, the group halts. The General 
pronounces in a loud voice the regulation phrase : — 

" ' Alfred Dreyfus, you are unworthy to bear arms ! ' 

" A police adjutant at once steps forward, and the hideous 
torture begins. Braid and buttons are torn away ; the regi- 
mental number is removed from the cap. Finally — and this is 
the hardest moment — the adjutant draws Dreyfus's sabre, 
breaks the blade over his knee, and flings the fragments at the 
traitor's feet. Dreyfus is too far away for us to make out his 
expression. He seems agitated and gesticulates. When the 
General uttered the damning apostrophe he raised his arm and 
in a voice strained and piercing cried out : ' Vive la France ! 
I am innocent ! ' 

" The adjutant has finished his task. The gold which covered 
the uniform lies heaped upon the ground ; they have not even 
left the condemned man those red bands down the trousers 
which indicate his branch of the service. Dreyfus, in his jacket, 
now perfectly black, with his dark cap, seems already to have 
assumed a convict's costume. The sinister escort is once more 
set in motion. The traitor is to pass before our eyes, and we 
are impatient to see him. Here he comes. Dreyfus is more 
and more agitated. He' continues to cry, 'I am innocent! 
Vive la France ! ' And on the other side of the gates the crowd, 
vaguely discerning his form, lets fly fierce volleys of hoots and 
hisses. Dreyfus hears these imprecations, and they increase 
his rage. 

" As he passes a group of officers, this phrase is audible : ' Be- 
gone, Judas ! ' Furious, he turns on the speaker, and repeats 
with redoubled energy : ' I am innocent ! I am innocent ! ' 

" Now we can discern his features clearly, and for a moment 
we closely scrutinize them, hoping to find there a supreme reve- 
lation, a reflection of that soul whose inmost windings only the 
members of the court-martial have thus far been able to pene- 



38 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

trate. That which is most prominent in the face of Dreyfus is 
anger, — anger almost beyond the point of control; his lips are 
parted, his eyes are bloodshot. We realize that if the con- 
demned man is firm and walks with so proud a bearing, it is 
because he is lashed by a fury that is straining his nerves to 
the breaking point, and putting him beside himself. 

" He passes by us : he disappears, and he leaves us bewildered 
and strangely moved. What is in the heart of that man ? 
What motive power is he obeying when he protests thus of his 
innocence, with the energy of despair? Is he hoping to deceive 
public opinion, to fill us with doubts, excite suspicions with re- 
gard to the fidelity of the judges who have condemned him ? 
And like a lightning flash this thought crosses our minds, — 
If he were not guilty, what frightful agony ! 

" But we repel this thought. Reason regains the empire over 
our feelings. No ! we cannot, and do not, have any doubt that 
Dreyfus has been branded by the purest and most honest ele- 
ment in the French army. He was condemned without a dis- 
sentient voice. He did really sell his country ! " 

From this scene of torture Dreyfus disappeared to 
Devil's Island, off the coast of French Guiana, not to re- 
appear, as it were, in public, until the heart of all the civi- 
lized world should be wrung with sympathy for his suffer- 
ings, and all men (except French fanatics) should hold 
him innocent. 

" No trial of king or of colossal criminal," says the 
" Nation," " ever held the breathless attention of all classes 
in all countries as has that of this obscure French captain." 
Of his trial, his condemnation, and all else that followed it 
in 1898 and 1899, when the world rang with the name of 
Alfred Dreyfus, we will tell in a subsequent chapter. 

This much, however, may be said here. Why was it 
necessary to get up a war scare in 1895 in connection with 
his trial? "WTiy were the documents in the " secret dossier " 
read to his judges, but withheld from the prisoner and his 
counsel? All France was told that it was to avert an im- 
minent danger to the country, that danger being a war 
with Germany. But we know now, on the authority of 
President Casimir-P^rier, substantiated by declarations 
from Berlin, that there was no danger whatever of such a 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 39 

war in 1895. " Peril to France!" "The country is in 
danger !" were false phrases, framed to excuse secrecy and 
illegality during the first trial. A court-martial could be 
held with closed doors, but to withhold from the knowledge 
or inspection of a prisoner and his counsel documents 
altered by the insertion of new matter, a name inserted 
where only D was written ; to bring in a verdict of guilty 
based upon forgeries and inconsequent matter that the 
prisoner and his counsel were not allowed to examine, or 
even to see, — argues a determination beforehand to fix 
guilt upon the prisoner, and some personal motive of great 
weight which impelled those who prepared and pressed 
such evidence to shield themselves. 

Whatever platitudes in connection with the Dreyfus case 
may have been uttered about the unsullied honor of officers 
in the French army in 1894, three years had barely elapsed 
since two French captains had been accused and found 
guilty of selling important secrets to foreigners. They 
were not Jews, nor Alsatians, and the matter, *' for the 
honor of the army," was more or less quietly hushed up. 

The French Government had for some time had in its 
possession a new explosive called melinite, and desired to 
keep its composition a strict secret, A clever ordnance 
officer, however, named Turpin found out for himself that 
picric acid was the chief component in melinite. He at 
once threatened to sell the secret to a foreign government 
unless that of France would buy his silence. The bargain 
was struck, and the French Government paid him 50,000 
francs to hold his tongue. Notwithstanding this, he tried to 
obtain money for his secret from foreign firms, especially 
from the Armstrongs, the great English manufacturers of 
cannon. In these transactions another French captain was 
his agent, named Tripon^. The principal and his agent 
came at last to an open quarrel ; the matter reached the 
public ear ; and M. de Freycinet, then Minister of War, 
found himself compelled to send Turpin, Tripon^, and two 
other officers for trial under the laws against the revelation 
of mihtary secrets. The court, as was legal in such cases. 



40 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

heard the evidence with closed doors, and pronounced 
sentences which were at that time considered of extra- 
ordinary severity. Turpin and Tripone were each con- 
demned to five years' imprisonment and to an insignificant 
fine. In the case of Tripon^ ten years of exile from France 
was added to the penalty. Suspicion, however, was at 
once aroused, that pointed to an officer in high command 
as the real culprit, and it was also asserted that " M. de 
Freycinet, then War Minister (though his own honesty was 
above suspicion), had been trying to shield officers so im- 
portant that to bring them to justice would discredit the 
army." The matter was brought before the Chamber of 
Deputies in June, 1891 ; and, although the vote of the 
Deputies was largely in M. de Freycinet's favor, the per- 
sonal support given him was so half-hearted that he lost 
all his usual self-command in debate, and was eager for an 
opportunity to resign. 

A law'' was subsequently introduced into the Chamber 
inflicting much severer penalties than those meted out to 
Turpin and Tripon^ ; in certain specified cases of betraying 
secrets, imprisonment for life was to be inflicted, or even the 
death penalty. It is not hard to see why M. de Freycinet 
shrank after this from any interference with the General 
Staff that might again have brought him under suspicion of 
wanting to defend one who had betrayed French secrets to 
the enemy. Turpin was pardoned, we know not by what 
influence; and early in 1894, when General Mercier 
was Minister of War, a heated discussion took place in 
the Chamber of Deputies, in which the Government was 
severely criticised because General Mercier had refused to 
treat with Turpin, who again offered to provide France 
with a new engine of war that would clear a space 
for miles in front of an enemy. It was to be a gun 
capable of hurling a bomb containing picric acid, which 
on bursting would scatter other bombs filled with similar 
projectiles. 

On January 15, 1895, ^^^er a presidency of only six 
months, M. Casimir-P^rier amazed France and all Europe 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 41 

by suddenly laying his resignation on the tables of the 
Senate and the Chamber. 

" I never concealed from myself," he said, " the diffi- 
culties of the task imposed on me by the National Assem- 
bly, I foresaw them. If a man does not refuse a post at 
the moment of danger, he can only preserve his dignity by 
the conviction that he is serving his country. The Presi- 
dent of the Republic, deprived of means of action and 
control, can derive from the confidence of the nation 
alone, the moral force without which he can do nothing. 
I doubt neither the common-sense nor the justice of 
France, but the attempt to mislead public opinion has 
succeeded. More than twenty years of conflict for the 
same cause, more than twenty years of attachment to the 
Republic, and of devotion to the democracy, have not 
sufficed either to convince all Republicans of the sincerity 
and ardor of my political faith, or to disabuse the adver- 
saries who believe, or affect to believe, that 1 shall become 
the instrument of their passions and their hopes. For six 
months a campaign of slander and insult has been going 
on against the army, the magistracy, Parliament, and the 
head of the state, who in this matter could not be held 
responsible ; and this liberty of fanning social animosities 
continues to be styled liberty of thought.-"^ The respect and 
the ambition which I cherish for my country do not allow 
me to admit that the country's best servants, and he who 
represents it in the eyes of the foreigner, may be insulted 
daily. I will not consent to bear the weight of the moral 
responsibility resting upon me in the condition of power- 
lessness to which I am condemned." 

Jean Casimir-Perier (legally authorized to add the Chris- 
tian name of an illustrious ancestor to his surname) was 

1 See how Henri Rochefort, the very chief of sinners, exults over 
his shameless vituperation of Napoleon III. when chief of the 
French people: "Any weapon was good enough forme to sap the 
respect with which they affected to surround that official dummy 
called ' the person of the sovereign.' Ah ! that poor sovereign ! 
I twisted and wrung him like a wet towel." And twenty years 
after that, he did no less for a President not to his likinjr. 



42 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

born in Paris a year before the flight of Louis PhiUppe and 
the temporary organization of the Second RepubUc. He 
served in the Franco-German war with distinction, both 
on the frontier and during the siege of Paris, and was 
decorated with the Legion of Honor. In 187 1 he went 
into public life as a subordinate in the office of the Minis- 
ter of the Interior. Not long after that he became a 
Deputy, voting always with the Moderate Republicans. 
When in 1S83 a law was passed excluding from pubhc 
office all members of any family which had reigned in 
France, he resigned his seat, rather than vote, being unable 
to reconcile family duty with Republican sentiments. In 
1893, he was elected to the honorable office of President 
of the Chamber of Deputies (that is, its Speaker), but he 
soon resigned this position, at the earnest solicitation of 
President Carnot, to become Prime Minister. This post, 
which he foresaw would launch him on a sea of troubles, he 
held only a few months. His cabinet was overthrown 
shortly before the assassination of President Carnot, and 
then the body that had rejected him as Prime Minister 
elected him, June 27, 1894, on its first ballot, to be Presi- 
dent of the Republic. His opposing candidates were 
M. Brisson and M. Dupuy. 

As I have said before, Casimir-P^rier, engaged in public 
affairs from his youth, and recently Prime Minister, saw 
no reason why his experience in statesmanship should not 
be put to the service of his country. M. Dupuy and his 
Cabinet (whom the new President retained in office) 
thought otherwise. They did not choose to be hampered 
by his interference. They were not willing to stand by 
him when he was virulently attacked by writers in low- 
class Parisian journals. 

Everything that could be thought of by Socialist leaders 
was done to stir up the Anarchists and mob of Paris 
against the man who had signed the death-warrants of 
Ravachol, Vaillant, and Henry, the Anarchist who threw a 
bomb into the midst of an audience listening quietly to a 
concert near the Gare St. Lazare. 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 43 

The " scandal " that occupied pubUc attention at the 
close of 1894 was not the court-martial held with closed 
doors on Dreyfus, in December of that year, but a scandal 
concerning railroads in southern France. In 1883, the 
Government had guaranteed payment of interest on the 
bonds of these railroads for a term of years, on condition 
that they should build certain branch lines of strategical 
value, not likely to be remunerative for traffic. The Min- 
ister who negotiated this matter was M. Raynal, a warm 
personal friend of M. Perier. By 1894, this guarantee had 
become a heavy burden on the Public Treasury. It 
began to be questioned whether the guarantee was for 
thirty years, which would bring it to an end in 19 14, or 
whether it was to last until the bonds should become due in 
i960. The wording of the original agreement was vague. 
M. Raynal wished to have it considered that the obligation 
of government would last as long as the bonds, but Par- 
liament insisted that in 19 14 it would have a right to 
reopen the matter. Meantime a great deal of money was 
being made by those who held the securities of these rail- 
roads, their price having advanced from two hundred to 
three hundred above par. All this gave rise to a great out- 
cry against capitalists. The President's son Ernest was a 
young mining engineer who had some pecuniary interest in 
one of the companies. All kinds of false and malicious 
reports were circulated regarding the origin of the great 
Perier fortune. The friendship of the President with 
M. Raynal, on whom the most bitter invectives fell, was 
made a weapon with which to attack his hitherto unsullied 
character. 

Added to this, he received daily anonymous letters from 
Anarchists, threatening with death not only himself, but 
members of his family. 

The President was a man of sensitive temperament and 
of quick temper. He had not the impassivity with which 
General the Marquis de Gallifet, inured to abuse, stood fire 
from the press, the public, and deputies in the Chamber. 
M. Dupuy, who was far from friendly to the chief who had 



44 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

proved his successful rival for the presidency, took care that 
he should see all the reports of prefects which spoke of his 
unpopularity in the provinces, and Casimir-P^rier himself 
insisted upon reading all that reflected on him in the 
Parisian journals. Besides this, he who but a few months 
before had been head of a Cabinet in which many of his 
present ministers were members, felt keenly the way in 
which he was set aside by those who ought to have treated 
him with confidence, but, on the contrary, kept from him 
official knowledge. 

M. Poincar^, the Minister of Finance, submitted to the 
Chamber a revised budget, of which the President had 
never heard. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, and General 
Mercier, the Minister of War, neglected to keep him in- 
formed of diplomatic business, especially in the case of 
Captain Dreyfus ; while Mercier made arrangements to 
dismiss thirty-six thousand French soldiers from active ser- 
vice, and to send them back to their homes, without giving 
the President any intimation of what he intended to do. 
A letter from the Queen Regent of Spain to the President 
was also withheld until the Spanish Ambassador had told 
him of it. 

The Socialists, by public meetings and through the press, 
began a campaign of denunciation, calumny, and invective, 
against M. Perier ; and when one of the worst of these 
libellers, M. Gerault-Richard, was brought to trial, it was 
hard to get a jury to convict him. A few weeks after he 
had been sent to prison, M. Gerault-Richard was elected 
Deputy for one of the districts of Paris, where the electors 
were working-men. The Chamber of Deputies refused, 
indeed, to give the convict his seat, but by a very small 
rnajority. 

Thus M. Perier found himself powerless, unsupported by 
his Cabinet and by the Chamber, his family and himself 
exposed defenceless to the attacks of journalism, and set at 
nought by his ministers. 

The straw that is said in the end to have broken him 
down was an incident in the Dreyfus affair. The Intelli- 



PRESIDENT CASIMIR-PERIER 45 

gence Department of the General Staff contrived (I think 
by a prearranged accident to the mail) to get into its 
hands despatches addressed to the Emperor William from 
his Parisian Embassy. These papers were examined, 
copied, and, with as little delay as possible, forwarded to 
Berlin. Emperor William, incensed at this outrage, com- 
plained of it with indignation to President P^rier, who was 
forced to confess that he knew nothing of the matter, as 
his ministers ignored him completely. 

Emperor William is said to have accepted this humiliat- 
ing apology, but the transaction is also thought to have 
laid the foundation for the so-called " war scare," on which 
General Mercier insisted, to justify concealment in regard 
to the secret dossier in the Dreyfus affair. 

These things could not but confirm the President's con- 
viction that he was not in his proper place, and that it did 
not suit a man of his stamp to hold the Presidency of the 
French Republic. He is said to have hesitated before 
accepting the position, and to have been induced at the 
last moment to take office by a feeling that, after the assas- 
sination of Carnot, it was a post of personal peril. " In 
the face of danger," his brave mother said to him, " a Pdrier 
never hesitates." 

So Casimir-P^rier laid his resignation on the table of 
the Senate and on that of the Chamber, and retired into 
private life, from which he was not to emerge until sum- 
moned as a witness for the defence before the too cele- 
brated court-martial at Rennes, in August, 1899. He fell, 
the victim of attacks inspired by Socialist leaders, to please 
every form of discontent which under the Third Repubhc 
is seething in France beneath the surface of society, 
from the anti-Semites and Anarchists of the fin du siecle, 
Legitimists, Clericals, and Bonapartists, to inheritors of the 
old doctrines of the Jacobin Club. 



CHAPTER III 

PRESIDENT f6lIX FAURE 

'T^HE choice of the National Assembly on Jan. 17, 
-■- 1895, fell, without turbulence or even an exciting 
debate, on M. F^lix Faure. M. Waldeck-Rousseau (Mod- 
erate Republican) had a large vote on the first ballot, M. 
Brisson (Moderate Radical) had a still larger one, but on 
the second ballot M. Waldeck-Rousseau withdrew, and 
his votes went over to M. Faure, who had been Minister 
of Marine in a late Cabinet, "and yet," says Mr. Bodley, 
" it is probable that on the previous New Year's Day, even 
in Paris, in the heart of political life, not one person in a 
thousand knew him even by name." 

It was like the election of James K. Polk to be President 
of the United States, in 1844. M. Faure had, however, 
been well known to those associated with him in the busi- 
ness duties of the Chamber. In all practical matters his 
colleagues had found him far-sighted and intelligent. In 
Havre, for which he sat as Deputy, he enjoyed the esteem 
and confidence of his fellow-townsmen. Deputies in France 
are commonly selected from among lawyers, professors, 
doctors, and journalists ; it is rare that a man of business 
enters a Cabinet, or is elected to the Legislature. 

M. Faure represented no family in France of historical 
influence, like P^rier or Carnot ; he was no political theorist 
like M, Gr^vy ; he had no military prestige like MacMahon, 
no world-wide reputation like M. Thiers, " but his genial 
manners, his correct deportment, and his blithe alertness 
in performing his social functions, made him a popular 
hero, before the detractors of M. Casimir-P6rier had had 
time to recognize that he was of that odious bourgeois 




FELIX FAURE. 



PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 47 

class whose members, without rank, aspired to the influence 
of wealth in the community, especially in all matters relat- 
ing to finance." When, however, it became manifest that 
the new President was becoming popular, the Socialists 
grew alarmed to think that a capitalist and an employer 
was winning good opinions from all classes of society. 

They raised the cry of " Danger to the State ! " before 
the new President had been a month in the Presidential 
Chair. 

It was impossible to deny that, according to every mean- 
ing attached to the word, M. Faure was a bourgeois. His 
supporters found it desirable to make out that he had at 
least begun life as a manual laborer, a man who had earned 
his bread by the work of his hands. His family had had 
its origin in Provence ; his father had come up to Paris, 
and was a furniture-maker on a small scale. F^lix was 
for a time apprenticed to a tanner, and soon after his 
election Paris was flooded with pictures representing him 
in a workman's blouse, disordered, blood-stained, and very 
dirty. 

The accusation of being a bourgeois, pur et simple, 
thus being refuted, the enemies of the new President 
turned their attacks in another direction. In France any- 
thing like commercial failure is supposed to reflect dis- 
credit on all branches of the family of the defaulter. A 
most despicable intrigue was carried on, upon these lines, 
against President Faure, which, when it was brought to 
light, only strengthened his position. An ignoble crowd 
of political workers endeavored to blackmail the head of 
the State by threatening him with the disclosure of a 
domestic scandal unless he retired into private life of his 
own accord. The scandal in question v/as simply that 
Madame Faure's father, before she was born, had com- 
mitted a breach of trust, and had become an absconder. 
When, twenty years later, M. Faure sought to marry the 
young girl, she told him of these circumstances, and instead 
of being repelled by the shadow on the family name, he 
loyally and honorably refused to part from her. When 



48 LAST YEARS OF THE NIA^'ETEENTfl CENTURY 

these circumstances became public, all this turned to the 
credit of M. Faure and to that of his excellent wife, and 
the result was that France gained a new appreciation of 
her President, as a man who, being honorable in private 
life, could afford to be brave in public office. 

One of the first duties of a President of France and 
indeed of all persons placed in exceptionally high positions, 
according to the modern code, is to hold reviews, visit 
hospitals, appear at exhibitions, preside at fetes, lay corner- 
stones, and make tours in the Provinces. All these func- 
tions M. Faure fulfilled with exemplary diligence and 
geniality. He seemed to enjoy them. He was a tall, 
well-made man, and his manners had the dignity of those 
of M. Carnot, but with more grace. He even inspired 
hope among the better class of Frenchmen that he might 
prove more than a mere honorary official, — a real head 
of the State, exerting a discreet but effectual influence 
over the Government. But circumstances were too strong 
for him. In spite of his brave spirit, his prudence, and his 
skill, he became, what his predecessors had been, little 
more than the figure-head of a storm-tossed ship, and 
he died, broken down by cares and disappointments, after 
four years of political worry. 

For two years after he became President, little occurred 
in France to interest the world beyond its borders ; but 
Parliamentary squabbles were carried on with great bitter- 
ness. Under the Presidencies of M. Carnot and M. Cas- 
imir-P^rier, scepticism and violence were the dominant 
notes in Parliamentary eloquence. The same thing con- 
tinued under the Presidency of M. Faure. The integrity 
of nearly every public man was called in question. The 
Panama scandal, and that of railroads in the South of 
France, were revived. It was in these years that Arton 
and Herz offered to make revelations, but the latter drew 
back at the last moment. In consequence of Arton's con- 
fessions some arrests of public men took place, but interest 
in these scandals was no longer intense. 

The Minister for Foreign Affairs was M. Hanotaux, a 



PRESIDENT F£LIX FAURE 49 

young man who had already acquired a high reputation. 
Speaking, in 1895, of M. Hanotaux's accession to office, 
M. Gabriel Monod, who, in 1898 and 1899, was a most 
earnest Dreyfusard, made this remark, which shows how 
imphcitly all Frenchmen then believed in the good faith 
and ability of the court-martial which had condemned 
Dreyfus at the close of 1894. He said: " Hanotaux 
found himself confronted by not a few matters of impor- 
tance. The treachery of Captain Dreyfus involved a grave 
national question, for the principal document in evidence 
against him had been stolen from a foreign government." 

We know now that M. Hanotaux was not confronted 
by the probability of any immediate war with Germany, 
but that there were other international matters on the 
tapis that required his delicate handling. 

A war was going on between China and Japan which 
threatened to involve European nations in disputes with 
one another, and the relations of France with England in 
Africa, both in the East and in the West, were becoming 
very complicated. In Madagascar, France had assumed 
the White Man's Burden, in opposition to the known views 
of M. Hanotaux ; and she found that it lay heavy on her 
shoulders, with little glory, honor, or commercial advan- 
tage to offset the loss of money and of life it was certain 
to entail. In Eastern Europe there was an impending war 
between Turkey and Greece ; an insurrection in Crete was 
to be assisted or suppressed, and, above all, there was the 
question of the Armenian massacres. 

M. Gabriel Hanotaux was a self-made man, born near 
St. Quentin, in Picardy, in 1853. His grandfather was 
a shrewd peasant, who cultivated his own land. He was a 
prudent manager, was respected by his neighbors, and did 
well. His son (the father of Gabriel) became a notary 
public. He sent his boy to the Lyc^e at St. Quentin, 
where, patient, industrious, and kindly, he was popular with 
his school-fellows. He made an excellent scholar, and 
was particularly distinguished by his love of history. He 
was not apparently ambitious of advancement, but it was his 

4 



50 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

earnest desire to do everything well. When he quitted the 
Lyc^e, he was sent to Paris to study law. His father had 
a cousin in the capital, the wife of Henri Martin, the his- 
torian. When the young student went to see her, she dis- 
couraged him by assuring him that he could never succeed 
in Paris at the bar, as his provincial accent would make it 
impossible for him to produce effect as a public speaker ; 
but M. Martin took him to see Gambetta, who employed 
him to write articles on the sixteenth and seventeenth 
centuries in his paper, " La Republique Frangaise." He 
was also attached to the department of Archives, and while 
there he labored diligently to collect materials for an 
exhaustive memoir of Cardinal Richelieu, whose career, 
strange to say, had never, up to that time, found a compe- 
tent historian. He next became a professor, and lectured 
on History in the Ecole des Hautes Etudes ; he also found 
employment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where he 
was soon advanced to the position of Chief Clerk. But all 
this brought him little remuneration, and although he lived 
with extreme simplicity, he found it hard to make his 
means meet his expenses. When Gambetta in 1881 
became Prime Minister, he took Hanotaux into his Cabi- 
net as a sort of under- secretary. In 1886, he was sent 
to Constantinople as an attach^ to the Embassy. 

Unfortunately he has never travelled, except during his 
connection with this mission. He reads English, but can 
converse in no foreign tongue, which is a great disadvan- 
tage to a statesman, especially to one connected chiefly 
with foreign affairs. His services while at Constantinople 
were of great use to his superiors, especially in what con- 
cerned the management of Bulgarian affairs. On his 
return to France he was elected Deputy from his own 
department, but all the North of France, especially all 
Picardy, was in 1889 wild with enthusiasm for Boulanger. 
A representative who stood out boldly in the Chamber 
against the methods and ulterior objects of le brav' general, 
was not to the taste of his constituents. In the general 
election that followed, public meetings to secure his re-elec- 



PRESIDENT FELIX FA URE 5 I 

tion were broken up by stone fights and fisticuffs. It is 
said that a trap was even laid to take his life. He was 
not re-elected, and made no subsequent effort to enter the 
Chamber, where indeed he had played the part of a man 
of business, not that of a political orator. 

In May, 1894, shortly before the death of M. Camot, he 
was made Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Cabinet that 
succeeded that in which Casimir-P^rier was Premier ; and 
his ability in that position was so marked that the Radi- 
cal successor of M. P^rier begged him to retain his port- 
folio. M. Hanotaux did not consent. He disagreed with 
the Cabinet about Madagascar, and his wish was to avoid 
irritating England until France could concentrate her 
strength for one mighty effort to checkmate her in 
Egyptian affairs. When he returned to office, he found 
Madagascar annexed, and what in his opinion was an 
unsatisfactory agreement entered into with England, con- 
cerning French colonies in Eastern Asia. He, however, 
accepted these things as accomplished facts, and turned 
his attention to negotiations with England concerning the 
boundaries of French and English possessions in West 
Africa. In this matter he was so successful that Lord Sahs- 
bury was accused in England of sacrificing English interests 
to avoid a rupture with France, but Lord Salisbury was well 
aware that English interests in West Africa and Central 
Africa were as nothing compared to those in countries 
watered by the Nile. M. Hanotaux was always anxious 
to preserve the warmest relations of friendship with Russia, 
and he was personally a strong friend of Prince Lobanoff, 
the Russian Ambassador. Cecil Rhodes, after the Jameson 
Raid, when his popularity in England was at a low ebb, 
visited M. Hanotaux as he passed through Paris. " I am 
nobody now," said Cecil Rhodes to Hanotaux ; " I am a 
broken man ; but I may come to the front again some 
day." 

It seerris unlikely that France in the coming century 
will ever recover the prestige she acquired as a colonial 
power in the days of Louis XIV. She has not French- 



52 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

men enough to Europeanize lands peopled by savages. 
Her young men, by whom colonies might be developed, 
are absorbed by her large army. She has not, as England 
has, capable and honest colonial administrators, trained 
to the work, and willing to devote themselves to national 
interests at the antipodes. Nor has she private companies 
ready to invest large fortunes in colonial development. 

The French idea of colonial management is to make 
of each new possession a French department. Troops are 
sent there, Frenchmen establish telegraphs and postal ser- 
vice in it, and departmental methods are at once intro- 
duced ; but there are few or no Frenchmen in the country 
except army men and ofificials. This state of things, the 
timidity of capitalists, the danger of Parliamentary interfer- 
ence, the difficulty of getting able and honest men to aban- 
don the soil of France for that of distant regions, may 
for a long time render fruitless the enormous sacrifices 
France has made for her colonial possessions. This state 
of affairs ought to be an object lesson to other nations. 
But few of us, in moments of national enthusiasm, show 
any disposition to profit by the experience of others. 

In October, 1896, the young Emperor of Russia and his 
wife, after their coronation at Moscow, made a European 
tour. They visited Paris, and were received with trans- 
ports of welcome. The delirium excited by the presence 
of Russian naval officers in France was nothing to that 
roused when the Czar came to visit those who persisted in 
believing themselves his new allies. At a banquet at the 
Elys^e, President Faure, in proposing a toast to the Em- 
peror, said that " his presence had sealed the bonds uniting 
the two countries in a harmonious activity, and in a mutual 
confidence in their destinies, and that the union of a 
powerful empire and a hard-working republic had already 
exercised a beneficent influence on the peace of the world, 
and strengthened by a proud fidelity would continue to 
spread abroad its fortunate influence." The Czar replied 
that " faithful to an unforgettable tradition, he had come 
to France to visit the head of a nation to which he was 



PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 53 

united by such precious bonds, and he begged the Presi- 
dent to interpret to the whole of France his sentiment 
that the cordiaHty with which he had been received could 
not but leave on his mind the happiest influence." 

A million and a half of people flocked into Paris for 
the occasion. France dreamed of the humiliation of Ger- 
many, and the restitution of Alsace and Lorraine. Mr. 
Bodley remarks, " It was said that the plaudits of the 
crowds were addressed to the chief of a sympathetic nation, 
which had taken France out of her isolation ; but had it 
been possible for the sister Repubhc of America to per- 
form that office, it may be doubted if the spectacle of the 
President of the United States promenading the Boulevards 
with his citizen colleague of France would have produced 
the same democratic rapture. The French saluted in the 
person of the Czar an autocrat, the absolute master of 
legions, which, at a word from him, may one day march 
to victory side by side with the armies of France." 

It is imposed on the President of the French Republic 
never to attend public worship, never to pronounce the 
name of God in any public utterance, lest he should offend 
the anti-clericals, and, like every other functionary in 
France, President F^lix Faure submitted to the terrorism 
of a small minority, and carefully avoided official appear- 
ance in the churches, "as if," says Mr. Bodley, "they were 
places of ill repute." 

At Rheims, where he went to inaugurate a statue of 
the Maid of Orleans, whose only connection with that city 
was, that in its cathedral she had crowned Charles VII., 
President Faure, not daring to enter its hallowed precincts, 
took care not to reach the city until the religious observ- 
ances were over. 

But on one occasion — one only — during his Presi- 
dency, he made an official visit to Notre Dame. 

" When the Czar of Russia came to Paris, the young autO' 
crat profited from the curious deference paid him by the French 
nation to read the Republican Government a lesson in reli- 
gious decorum. Though not a member of the Roman com- 



54 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

munion, he expressed his desire to pay his respects to the 
rehgion professed by the majority of the people whose guest 
he was ; and thus the President of the Republic went officially 
to the metropolitan Cathedral of Notre Dame, not as the 
chosen chief of many millions of Catholics, but as the polite 
attendant of a foreign potentate. The Czar plainly intimated 
to the French Government that only as a Christian prince did he 
accept its homage, and his first public act in France was to 
proceed with pomp to a solemn service at the Russian Church, 
though he had not found that ceremony necessary when 
visiting Great Britain or Germany. One of the most singular 
results of the Franco-Russian alliance was that in its desire 
to please its august ally, the Republican Government, which 
officially ignored religious solemnities celebrated by French- 
men and Frenchwomen, displayed a sudden cult for the offices 
of the Orthodox rite. On every birthday or other festival of 
the imperial family of Romanoff, the high officials of the French 
Republic trooped to prayers to the Russian Church in the Rue 
Daru." 

What led to such enthusiasm on the part of France for 
an alliance with a nation essentially unlike itself? " The 
homage," says Mr. Bodley, " paid by France to Russia in 
the last decade of the nineteenth century is one of the 
most curious international spectacles ever presented to 
Europe, regarded either as the attitude of one great 
Power before another, or as that of a democracy before 
despotism." Not many years earlier, all France had been 
permeated with sympathy for Poland ; but after the disas- 
ters of 187 1, the absorbing aspiration of Frenchmen 
has been the recovery of the lost provinces, Alsace and 
Lorraine. Not that these provinces are dear to France 
and Frenchmen in themselves. They were not an inte- 
gral part of France. The peasants of Alsace had preserved 
their German language. Alsatians were to Parisians what 
Galileans were once to Jewish aristocrats in Jerusalem. 
When we lived in Paris in 1839, 1840, 1841, 1847, ^^^ 
1848, we had Alsatian servants, and realized that they 
were never considered " quite French " when brought into 
contact with Parisians. We have seen in the Dreyfus 
affair that to be an Alsatian told against a French officer 



PRESIDENT FELIX FA URE 5 5 

more than to have been born an Austrian. France 
obtained Alsace in 1697, partly through diplomacy and 
partly through success in war. But Louis XIV., realizing 
that its possession was of no great value, was ready to 
restore it to Germany, had it been demanded as a con- 
dition of peace, after the battle of Malplaquet. 

Lorraine was ceded to France, only twenty- three years 
before the Revolution, its Duke receiving in exchange the 
Grand Duchy of Tuscany. Lorraine was, however, always 
more French than Alsace, and it is greatly to be lamented 
that the wish of the Emperor Frederick (then Crown Prince 
of Prussia) to leave her to France in 187 1, was overruled 
by Von Moltke, who urged that in a military point of 
view Germany must hold possession of Metz, for the 
security of her new frontier. 

To all appearance, the people of Alsace and Lorraine 
have not been oppressed by their German conquerors. 
But above all things France desires the recovery of these 
provinces. She counts for nothing the annexation of Nice 
and Savoy under the Second Empire. Her alliance with 
Russia seemed to Frenchmen a first step in la revanche ; 
that is, in the great revenge for what she had lost. It is not 
to be supposed that Russia would enter into a close alliance 
with France which had this aim in view without, in case 
a new map of Europe is constructed by her help, receiving 
a quid pro quo. Russia is supposed to desire the posses- 
sion of Constantinople and an open port on the Mediter- 
ranean quite as much as France desires the recovery of 
Alsace and Lorraine. 

Once before Russia was in close alliance with France, 
when Alexander I. and Napoleon at Erfurt planned the 
division of Europe into an eastern and a western empire, 
but their agreement split upon this point. Napoleon 
would not yield to the wish of the Czar to gain possession 
of Constantinople. 

As far back as 1889 a formal treaty of alliance between 
France and Russia was believed to have occupied the 
attention of the two governments. In 1894, President Car- 



56 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

not and Casimir-Perier, who was his Prime Minister, are 
said to have signed a military convention, preliminary to a 
definite treaty of alliance. Then came the assassination of 
President Carnot, and the brief presidency of Casimir- 
Pdrier, during which negotiations were actively carried on 
by M. Hanotaux and Prince Lobanoff, his personal friend. 
When Prince Lobanoff died, his place was filled by Count 
Muravieff. 

Next came the Czar's visit to Paris, then the return visit 
of M. Faure to Russia, whither he went, in the summer of 
1897, in a French war steamer, accompanied by a French 
fleet. The word alliance had been carefully avoided 
until the treaty should be definitively signed, and the 
French people were, eager to catch the first official utter- 
ance that should pronounce that word. At the final ban- 
quet given on board the French flagship " Pothuau " on 
August 26, before the French squadron sailed for home, 
President Faure spoke of " two friendly and allied nations, 
guided by a common ideal of civilization, law, and justice, 
uniting in a brotherly manner in a most sincere and loyal 
embrace." And the Czar, in reply, said : " I am happy to 
see that your stay among us is binding a new tie between 
our friendly and allied nations, who are both equally re- 
solved to contribute by everything in their power to the 
maintenance of the peace of the world, in a spirit of justice 
and equity." 

These words declared to the world that then, if not be- 
fore, France and Russia stood united by a solemn compact 
in a common policy of alliance " for the maintenance of 
peace." 

It does not appear thus far that the Dual Alliance be- 
tween France and Russia, if it has its raison d^etre in un- 
satisfied aspirations, will precipitate war. Both nations 
may, as sailors say, " Stand by," for their next opportunity. 
The chief result of the alliance thus far has been to gratify 
France, which since 187 1 has bitterly felt her isolation, by 
drawing her back into the concert of European Powers. 

Another result reached thus far by the Dual Alliance 



PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 57 

has been to enable Russia to raise much-needed loans 
from French financiers. 

The contracting parties in both the Dual and the Triple 
Alliance have indeed protested that their especial object 
is to preserve the status quo in Europe, and to maintain 
peace ; but the French people, under the influence of their 
hopes, are disinclined to believe them, and indeed it 
seems possible that though for the present " nothing has 
come " of these alliances (to use the homely language of the 
fireside and the nursery), an opportunity may arise in the 
coming century when the Franco-Russian alliance may re- 
sult in an attempt to fulfil the hopes with which the con- 
tracting parties have been generally credited. Meantime 
the Dual Alliance is by some considered a standing menace 
to Germany and England. France, after years of isolation 
and anxiety, feels tolerably safe as to the immediate future. 
Her whole interest during the past three years has been 
concentrated on two subjects, — the "Affaire," which was 
the popular name for the Dreyfus trial, with the attempts at 
revolution that came out of it, and the Exposition in 1900, 
the present year. The Dreyfus case will need a sepa- 
rate chapter, and we must say something about French 
Pretenders. Meantime there are persons in Paris who 
thought that they foresaw, in the comparatively peaceful 
and popular presidency of M. Faure, signs that some sort of 
secret understanding existed between him and the mixed 
multitude eager for change. History may hereafter clear 
up these obscure matters, and vindicate the plain dealing 
of President Faure, although indeed plain dealing is not a 
fundamental principle of diplomacy. There is reason to 
believe that the Marchand Mission sent across Africa, con- 
sisting of eight Europeans and one hundred and fifty Sene- 
galese soldiers, owed its inception and support to President 
Faure. 

Any one who reads the diplomatic correspondence con- 
cerning Fashoda loses all perception of what was right and 
what was wrong in the affair. This much, however, is 
certain, that Major Marchand's little party in the Fashoda 



58 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

swamp was at the mercy of the Anglo-Egyptian army, 
which had conquered the Khahfa, and won the battle of 
Omdurman ; that England could not consent to have the 
fruits of her dear-bought victory at Omdurman snatched 
from her by a party of French adventurers who had made 
their way to the upper waters of the Nile ; and that her 
costly scheme for the irrigation of Egypt depended on her 
possession of the Nile Valley and the upper waters of the 
river, to say nothing of her great project for the Cape-to- 
Cairo Railroad, on the completion of which, an American 
missionary bishop has lately told us, depends the civilization 
and Christianization of Africa. France had been warned 
in good time that any attempt to interfere with the Anglo- 
Egyptian occupation of the Nile Valley would be resented 
as an unfriendly act. But the result of Major Marchand's 
expedition and the hauling down of the French flag raised 
over a ruined fort at Fashoda, put an end to M. Faure's 
hopes of checkmating England's aspirations in Egypt, and 
brought upon his country what Frenchmen were pleased to 
consider a humiliation. 

On May 4, 1897, occurred the terrible disaster in Paris 
at the Charity Bazaar, in the Rue Jean Goujon, which stirred 
the hearts of all who read or heard of it throughout the 
civilized world. In Paris ladies of high rank have long been 
foremost in works of charity. A fair was planned by them 
which should combine a large number of charitable objects ; 
and among the leaders of the enterprise were the Duchesse 
d'Uzes and the Duchesse d'Alengon, a Bavarian princess, 
widow of the Due d'Alengon, the second son of the Due 
de Nemours, a lady greatly beloved in the Orleans family. 

A large frame and canvas building had been put up for 
the occasion. The ceiling was loosely covered with painted 
canvas, the walls (or rather the wooden framework of the 
building) were covered with the same ; the interior was 
fitted up so as to have the appearance of Old Paris, and 
antique settles in large numbers were screwed down to the 
floor. The building had been erected on a vacant lot of 



PRESIDENT F£LIX FAURE 59 

ground, and was surrounded by a high wooden paUng. On 
one side was a narrow alley, which divided it from a tall 
building used as a hotel. 

All fashionable Paris crowded to the Fair ; the streets 
around were blocked with carriages. The ladies wore 
their new spring bonnets, all tulle and flowers that year ; 
and it was the fashion to wear large fluted ruffs of lace or 
gauze around the neck, a long-obsolete custom of a former 
century. 

At four in the afternoon, when the crowd in and around 
the building was most packed, a cry of fire was raised, and 
the great assemblage, panic-stricken, rushed to the door. 
There was but one known entrance ; the building had been 
planned to prevent intrusion. On leaving the hall, the way 
divided into two short flights of steps leading to the great 
outer door. 

A gasoline lamp, used in the exhibition of some views, 
had suddenly flared up and the flame had caught some 
drapery. Almost in a minute the whole building was in 
flames, and from the ceiling dropped blazing fragments of 
painted canvas on the heads of tulle and lace that thronged 
the hall. So rapid was the destruction that there was no 
time to send for fire-engines. The men-servants, outside 
with the carriages, exerted themselves nobly to save the 
victims, but of the selfishness and pusillanimity of ces beaux 
messieurs in the building, it is better to say nothing. The 
stories that appeared in all the papers of Europe and 
America of deaths and of escapes were heart-rending. In 
half an hour the conflagration was at an end. The great 
hall and the paling that surrounded it lay a heap of ashes. 

A few persons made their way into the alley, and were 
dragged by servants of the hotel through its windows into 
safety. The Duchesse d'Uzes saved herself because she 
knew of a small side door leading into a little yard at the 
back of the building. The Duchesse d'Alengon refused to 
seek for safety, saying that the managers were bound to 
see all others safe before they left the hall. These 



60 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

were probably her last words, for her death followed 
almost immediately after. She was so terribly burnt that 
after long search her remains could be identified only by a 
ring found among charred fragments of flesh and bones 
among the ashes. Her death was so great a shock to the 
Due d'Aumale, her uncle by marriage, who was in Italy at 
that time for his health, that he did not survive it. There 
was for some time much fear that Mademoiselle Lucie 
Faure, the second daughter of the President, was among 
the victims. She had started for the Fair with a friend, 
but their carriage had been detained on the way, and they 
had not reached the building when the fire began. 

Help and sympathy flowed in from all directions when 
the peril was over. Enormous sums of money were brought 
personally, as well as sent, to the bureaux empowered to 
receive them. Persons were informed that they might 
either contribute to the general fund, or designate the 
particular cases to which they wished their money to be 
applied. Among these were widows who left destitute 
children, or women so maimed and disabled that they 
could do nothing for their own support. Many of these 
received from charitable sympathizers sums large enough 
to make for them a comfortable provision. 

For weeks after the fire, Parisians were fearful of entering 
public places of amusement, and the size of audiences on 
that account diminished all over the world. 

There is now a handsome substantial building for the 
use of future fairs and charitable exhibitions, built on the 
spot where the disaster occurred, together with a small 
chapel, both erected by funds contributed by the Comtesse 
de Castellane, an American lady, formerly Miss Anna Gould 
of New York. 

President Faure, besides his great disappointment over the 
miscarriage of the Fashoda expedition (of which I will tell 
more in a future chapter) was perplexed and perturbed 
through the last twelve months of his life by the rising excite- 
ment over the Dreyfus affair. He could foresee that its 
settlement would involve a crisis. He does not seem to 



PRESIDENT FELIX FAURE 6 1 

have been able to determine with which party the President 
of the French Repubhc ought to take sides. If he could 
only play no part in it, and let those who had the affair in 
hand bring it in some way to a conclusion, that might, he 
seems to have thought, be best, after all, and he would 
stand by to take advantage of unforeseen developments. 
All through 1898 trials connected with the "Affaire " were 
going on, — the trial of Zola and of Picquart, andthe ac- 
cusations of M. de Quesnay de Beaurepaire against the 
Court of Cassation. President Faure took no part in any 
of these things, nor did he notice the letters which the 
prisoner on Devil's Island piteously addressed to him. He 
was becoming worn out with worry and anxiety. Twice 
he had been shot at, both times by crazed fanatics, and it 
requires unbroken health and strong nerves to stand the 
strain of apprehending every day that a bullet may reach 
your heart before nightfall. 

On Feb. 16, 1899, at the age of fifty-six, President 
Faure, worn out with anxiety and overwork, died in his 
palace of the Elys^e. He had been signing decrees up to 
five o'clock in the afternoon, when he complained of feel- 
ing ill. His secretary placed him on a sofa, and, becoming 
alarmed, summoned his physician and his family. But he 
never rallied, and died the same night at ten o'clock. 
The physicians said his death was due to apoplexy com- 
plicated with disease of the heart. 

He was the sixth President of France during the Third 
Republic. The first was Adolph Thiers, who resigned. 
The second, Patrice McMahon, who also resigned. The 
third, Jules Gr^vy, who resigned. The fourth, Sadi Carnot, 
who was assassinated. The fifth, Casimir-Perier, who re- 
signed. The sixth, F^lix Faure, who died in office. Let 
us hope that his successor, Emile Loubet, will safely see 
the end of his Presidential term. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE DREYFUS CASE 

AT Miilhausen (Mulhouse), in Alsace, lived a Jewish 
family bearing the not uncommon name of Dreyfus. 
They were rich manufacturers, and had large factories. In 
187 1 the head of the family had several daughters and 
four sons. When, on the annexation of Alsace to Ger- 
many, a choice was offered to all persons of remaining 
Frenchmen or becoming Germans, Jacques, the; eldest of 
the four, remained in Mulhouse to manage the family fac- 
tories, but his three brothers, of whom Alfred was the 
youngest, declared themselves French. Jacques sent four 
of his six sons to pursue their fortunes in France, whence, 
by law, they were not to return to their German father's 
home. The firm had done much business in Chili. It had 
had an important lawsuit with the Chilian Government, and 
employed M. Waldeck-Rousseau, another Alsatian, as its 
agent and counsel. 

In 1897 Jacques gave up business, and, emigrating to 
France, was naturalized as a Frenchman. Alfred had been 
sent to school first in Mulhouse, where one of his school- 
fellows was Scheurer-Kestner, afterwards Vice-President of 
the French Chamber of Deputies. 

Alfred Dreyfus was not popular among his comrades in 
the French army. Like a certain young Corsican officer a 
century before, he was too fond of investigating everything. 
Nothing seemed safe from his inquiries. His brother 
officers were inert ; he was restlessly energetic, determined 
to advance himself by activity and by a thorough knowledge 
of his profession. 

In September, 1894, an Alsatian, employed as janitor at 
the German Chancellerie in Paris, brought to Major Henry, 



THE DREYFUS CASE ^l 

sub-chief of the Intelligence Department of the General 
Staff, a paper torn into small pieces, said at one time to 
have been taken from a waste -paper basket at the Embassy, 
at another from the overcoat pocket of Colonel Schwartz- 
koppen, the German military attach^. 

It is the business of military attaches to collect all possi- 
ble information concerning military affairs in the country 
to which their ambassador is accredited and to send it 
to their government. They are a sort of recognized hon- 
orable spies; even the American Embassy in 1894 con- 
tained such a person, who got himself into trouble because 
he overstepped the limits of etiquette as laid down in 
professional spydom. 

The document delivered to Major Henry was the famous 
bordereau, meaning the outside cover of a number of 
documents enclosed ; the documents had been taken out, 
but the cover had an enumeration of their contents written 
upon it. 

From some words in the bordereau it was inferred that 
the writer was an artillery officer on the General Staff, and, 
from an examination made of the handwriting of all officers 
so employed, it was also inferred that Captain Dreyfus 
was the writer ; not that to a foreigner there is much 
perceptible difference between one French handwriting 
and another. The leading officers of the General Staff, 
General Boisdeffre being their chief, and General Mercier 
Minister of War, consulted M. Bertillon, head of the Crim- 
inal Intelligence Bureau in Paris. M. Bertillon was the 
son of a man who had invented the system of measurements 
now used in all countries by the police. The son was 
an expert in handwriting with a queer theory based on 
diagrams, which he afterwards endeavored in vain to 
explain to judges at the court-martial at Rennes, and to 
the judges and jury on the trial of M. Zola. The conclu- 
sion arrived at by Generals Boisdeffre and Mercier was that 
Dreyfus must have written the bordereau. 

On Oct. 15, 1S94, Major du Paty de Clam of the Gen- 
eral Staff Intelligence Department sent for Dreyfus into 



64 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

his private room, laying a loaded pistol within his reach 
upon a table, and then set him to write from dictation a 
letter containing phrases taken from the bordereau. Not 
unnaturally (perceiving he was under suspicion), Dreyfus 
turned pale, and his hand was unsteady. At once he was 
arrested, and without being told of what he was suspected, 
he was taken by Colonel Henry to the Cherche Midi mili- 
tary prison. There Major Forzinetti, the commandant of 
the prison, was waiting to receive him, for his arrest had 
been determined on before the test was put to him. 

Forzinetti, a man of great experience in the behavior 
of criminals, soon came to the conclusion that this pris- 
oner was innocent ; and though forced to keep him au 
secret, — that is, to allow him to communicate with no one 
but the commandant himself, and those admitted by an 
order from his superiors, — he gave him his sympathy. 

Dreyfus had an admirable wife and two little children. 
His moral conduct, placed, as it were, under a microscope, 
stood the test of examination better, we venture to think, 
than that of most young officers in the French army would 
have done. 

His wife was left without the privilege of hearing from 
him, and for some hours knew not what had become 
of him. Then Major Henry was sent to search his house, 
and Madame Dreyfus was cautioned that if she revealed 
to any one her anxiety about her husband, it would bring 
more trouble upon him. 

Nothing incriminating was found in the house, unless it 
were some correspondence between Dreyfus and his sister, 
from which a theory was afterwards set up concerning the 
authorship of the bordereau. Dreyfus had given up his 
keys, saying to Colonel Henry that he might search every 
place in his house, but he would find nothing there. This 
was interpreted to mean that he had destroyed all incrim- 
inating evidence. 

The suffering of Dreyfus in his cell in the Cherche Midi 
prison as reported by Major Forzinetti seems to have been 
horrible. Day after day he ate nothing but some broth. 



THE DREYFUS CASE 65 

He flung himself against the walls ; he sobbed and groaned. 
Daily du Paty de Clam came on the part of General 
Mercier to urge him to confess, but nothing but the 
declaration " I am innocent ! " could be drawn from him. 
One night du Paty de Clam wished to creep into his 
cell, and when he was asleep flash a light into his face. 
Major Forzinetti refused to allow this, but afterwards at the 
Devil's Island it was one of the means of torture tried. 

General Mercier made at first a pretence of wishing to 
save Dreyfus, hoping, I suppose, he would make a false 
confession ; but ten days before the court-martial he wrote 
a communication to a newspaper, saying, '•' The guilt of this 
officer is absolutely certain." 

The court-martial took place on Dec. 19, 1894, with 
closed doors, which was not unusual in such cases; but 
most of the documents on which the accusation was 
founded were withheld from the prisoner and Maitre 
Demange, his counsel, but exhibited in secret to the judges. 
The chief judge declared afterwards in the trial at Rennes 
that \vz had been too tired to look over them carefully ! 

Dreyfus was condemned to public degradation, and to 
solitary confinement for life. He fancied this would be 
in New Caledonia, where his wife and children, if living 
on the island, would be admitted from time to time to 
see him ; but General Mercier, desirous above all things to 
get rid of him, induced the Chamber of Deputies to pass 
an especial law sending him to an island on the coast of 
French Guiana, — the Island of the Devil. 

I have told of the scene of his " degradation," Jan. 
5, 1895, as related by a press correspondent who believed 
him guilty. We know now that the day before it took 
place du Paty de Clam had visited him, and had offered 
on the part of the Minister of War — General Mercier — 
(who, we cannot but think, had personal motives for insist- 
ing on the guilt of this unhappy man) to spare him the 
torture of the public degradation if he would confess his 
guilt so far as to say that he had given certain worthless 
documents to a German military attach^, in return for 

S 



66 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

more important ones to be delivered to him in exchange, 
— a kind of transaction not unknown in the Intelhgence 
Department. But nothing could be wrung from him. 
While in great agitation walking up and down a little office at 
the Ecole Militaire, waiting for the clock to strike the hour 
when his degradation would begin, he said, muttering to 
himself: " If I would but have confessed that I had delivered 
documents of no value in exchange for others of importance, 
this would have been spared me." The officer on duty, 
Captain Lebrun-Renault, an honest, thick-headed man, 
caught these words, and imagined them to contain a 
confession. 

To the lie du Diable Dreyfus was sent a month later, 
protesting his innocence even in his sleep. 

We have seen how belief in his guilt was accepted by 
public men, and even by our Annual Cyclopedia. 

A year passed thus. The prisoner at Devil's Island had 
been forgotten by the public. His case was a chose jugee ; 
and according to French military law the chose jugee is a 
thing finished and disposed of, as unassailable and irrever- 
sible as a decree of Fate. But in the spring of 1896 Colonel 
Picquart, a man who had never known Captain Dreyfus, 
succeeded Colonel Sandherr in the Intelligence Depart- 
ment of the General Staff. Then a petit bleu fell into his 
hands. A petit bleu is a sort of sealed postal card, used in 
Paris, which has the privileges of what we call " special 
delivery." It was torn, like the bordereau, and had 
never been put in the post. It had been abstracted from 
the German Embassy, and was in the handwriting of 
Schwartzkoppen. On being pieced together, it was found 
to bear the name and address of Major Esterhazy. 

This led Colonel Picquart to make some inquiries con- 
cerning the means and character of Esterhazy. 

This person, Charles Marie Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy, 
belongs to a younger branch of the great Hungarian family 
of that name, which had settled in France one hundred 
years before, where some of its members distinguished 
themselves in the French army. In later years the father 



THE DREYFUS CASE 6/ 

of this Esterhazy did good service in the Crimean 
War. His son was born after his death, and was educated 
in Vienna. In 1866 he entered the Austrian service as a 
cavalry officer, and was wounded at the battle of Custozza. 
Why he abruptly left the Austrian army and joined the 
Pope's Roman Legion, has never been known to the public. 

When the Franco- German war began, he offered his 
sword to the French Emperor, was made a sub-lieutenant 
in the Army of the Loire, and, as far as fighting went, served 
with some credit. 

He afterwards complained that he had been called by 
some a Reitcr, a Free Lance, a Condottiere. " It may be 
so," he cried ; " I glory in it. With soldiers like me men 
used to win battles, and such as I did not abandon their 
comrades in the melees These last words were probably 
in allusion to some personal grievance against French 
officers, for though he had entered the French service he 
hated the French army. He said its generals were igno- 
rant and cowardly. He wished he were a captain of 
Uhlans, sabring Frenchmen. He gloried in a vision of 
Paris taken by assault and given over to be sacked by a 
hundred thousand drunken soldiers. 

He married a French lady of good family, who had a 
large fortune. The fortune he spent and then threw his 
wife back on the hands of her relations. 

With all this, there was always a charm in his personality. 
" He was as gifted as he was winning. He spoke nearly 
every language in Europe, and it is no common man in 
France who can speak foreign languages at all. He kept 
up with every discovery in science, was well read in general 
history, and took great interest in military affairs." 

When he wanted money (and he was always out of 
pocket) he used his wits and the charm of his manners to 
obtain it. In a duel that the Marquis de Mores, a bitter 
hater of the Jews, fought with a Jewish officer, he offered 
himself as second to the latter, who was killed, that he 
might have a claim to favor with the Rothschilds, and get 
them to make him loans. He obtained the money of a 



68 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

young relation to whom he appeared to be playing the 
part of a friend. In short, he betrayed everybody ; no one 
brought into contact with him escaped without injury. 
Schwartzkoppen, by permission of his Government, has 
frankly deposed that he was a paid spy. There is really 
no question that he wrote the bordereau. The only reason 
for any doubt about it is the fact that he has said he wrote 
it. This reminds me of a conversation I heard in 1849 in 
the house of a leading philanthropist in Boston, who was 
visited by two other Transcendental philanthropists to ask 
him to join in a petition for the pardon of Dr. Webster, 
convicted of the murder of Dr. Parkman. " But he has 
confessed he did it," was the objection raised. " Oh ! 
but he is such a seasoned liar no one can be expected to 
believe a word he says," was the prompt answer. And so 
with Esterhazy. It requires corroborative evidence to be- 
lieve anything he said, even a confession. 

Once put on the track of discovery, Colonel Picquart 
compared the handwriting in the bordereau with that of 
Esterhazy. He was struck with the resemblance. Without 
saying whose handwriting it was, he showed it both to 
Bertillon and du Paty de Clam, and they agreed with him 
that the same hand that had written those extracts had 
penned the bordereau. 

Then Picquart consulted the secret dossier to which he 
had access, as it was in his department in the Intelligence 
Office. He found in it much gossip, much that was irrele- 
vant, and saw that the only incriminating documents it 
contained would apply as well to Esterhazy as to Dreyfus. 

Meantime one of the morning papers in Paris published a 
facsimile of the bordereau. When this appeared, M. de 
Castro, the stock broker of Esterhazy, was struck by its 
resemblance to his handwriting, and communicated the 
fact to Matthieu Dreyfus, the prisoner's brother. 

Though the chose jugee could not be rejudged, the ver- 
dict of a court-martial became null and void, if it were 
shown that the proceedings of that court had been illegal. 
Maitre Demange, therefore, having ascertained that an im- 



THE DREYFUS CASE 69 

portant document bearing on the case had been secretly 
shown to the judges and not communicated to the prisoner 
or his counsel, encouraged Madame Dreyfus to petition for 
a revision of the trial. By this time General Billot was 
INIinister of War, and although M. Scheurer-Kestner, Vice- 
President of the Senate, convinced by the proofs laid 
before him that Dreyfus was entitled to a revision of his 
case, urged his views upon the new minister, the latter was 
unwilling to provoke discussion of the subject, and there- 
fore made an official statement before the Chamber of 
Deputies that Dreyfus had been legally and justly tried and 
condemned. 

Thus the War Office placed itself on record as against 
those who prayed for a revision of the trial. Colonel Pic- 
quart, who had shown that trap de zele deprecated by Tal- 
leyrand in a subordinate, was removed from the Intelligence 
Department (where Major, now Lieutenant-Colonel Henry 
succeeded him) and was banished to Tunis, secret orders 
being despatched to the commander there that he should 
be sent to a dangerous post in the frontier, where the 
Marquis de Mores' had been recently murdered by the 
Arabs. Of other plots to discredit and ruin Colonel 
Picquart while he remained in Tunis, there is no space 
to speak here. 

Neither is it necessary to tell of the trial and acquittal 
of Esterhazy, nor how the battle for and against revision of 
the trial of Dreyfus soon engrossed the whole of French 
politics, entered into family relations, and sundered friend- 
ships in private life. 

Esterhazy had a story to tell of a veiled lady who sum- 
moned him to meet her at night upon a bridge where 
she delivered to him an important document bearing on 
the Dreyfus case, which he was to put into the hands of 
the Minister of War. The "veiled lady" was proved after- 
wards to be no other than du Paty de Clam. But we 
cannot here go into side issues of the story. It is at once 
melodrama and tragedy. 

Next Emile Zola took a hand in the affair, and pub- 



70 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

lished his celebrated letter in the Aurore newspaper, begin- 
ning every sentence with " J'accuse." For this letter, 
which Mr. Dooley so amusingly parodied, he was cited to 
appear before a civil jury ; but the War Office interfered, 
and insisted that the inquiry must be confined to the 
charges made by Zola in his letter ; namely, that the find- 
ing, acquitting the accused in the Esterhazy trial, had 
been made according to order. Maitre Labori, a hitherto 
obscure lawyer, was M. Zola's counsel. In spite of his 
zeal and great ability, so many obstacles were thrown 
in his way that his client was convicted of libel, but 
the sentence was subsequently quashed by the Court of 
Cassation. 

A second time Zola was tried on almost the same charge, 
but the proceedings were so unfair to the accused that his 
counsel threw up his brief, and Zola was condemned by de- 
fault to a year of imprisonment, and a fine of three thou- 
sand francs was imposed on him. He fled into Switzerland. 
His household effects were put up at public auction to pay 
the fine. The first article offered was a kitchen table, on 
which some one in the crowd at once bid four thousand 
francs, which paid the fine and charges. The saddest part 
of the affair to Zola was that when he fled in haste from 
Paris he had to abandon his little dog, which died of 
grief when deserted by its master. 

The next scene in the drama was that early in July 
M. Cavaignac succeeded General Billot as Minister of War. 
Cavaignac has been always considered by his countrymen 
as par eminence a truthful, honest man ; when, therefore, he 
made a speech in the Chamber of Deputies assuring the 
country that he had. not a doubt of the guilt of Dreyfus, 
or of the honorable conduct of the court-martial that con- 
demned him, the Deputies, by a vote of 572 to 2, ordered 
his speech to be printed and placarded in all the 36,000 
communes in France. 

In the course of his speech M. Cavaignac read corre- 
spondence between Schwartzkoppen, the German military 
attache, and Panizzardi of the Italian Embassy, quoting 



THE DREYFUS CASE 7 1 

Dreyfus by name as the source from whom certain infor- 
mation had been obtained. These letters he had taken 
from the secret dossier. Maitre Demange, three days later, 
published the fact that at the court-martial neither the 
prisoner nor his counsel had seen or heard of these letters, 
— neither had the judges, as we know now. 

Six weeks later Cavaignac, conceiving doubts of the 
authenticity of the letters he had quoted, sent for Colonel 
Henry, who, under pressure, confessed that he had forged 
them ; but he insisted that he had done so for the good 
of his country and for the sake of his superiors. He was 
sent to prison in Fort Val^rien, and was there found the 
next day with his throat cut, a razor lying beside him. 
As prisoners are always searched before being committed 
to their cells, it seemed strange that he should have been 
in possession of a razor. The evening before he had been 
visited by an unknown officer. It was thought by those 
who believed him to have committed suicide that the act 
might have been prompted by a wish that his widow should 
receive a lieutenant-colonel's pension, as, having been 
born a peasant, he had little else to leave her. After this, 
Cavaignac quitted the War Office, and General Boisdeffi-e, 
who had recently returned all-glorious from representing 
France at the coronation of the Czar, resigned his place 
as Chief of the General Staff. Du Paty de Clam and 
Esterhazy were both retired from the army. 

Next the Court of Cassation undertook to investigate 
the Dreyfus trial. General Zurlinden, who had succeeded 
Cavaignac as Minister of War, was a bitter anti-Dreyfusard, 
though an Alsatian. He resigned when the Court of Cas- 
sation decided to undertake revision. He was succeeded 
by General Chanoine, whose abrupt resignation filled every 
one with surprise. In the Chamber of Deputies he had 
stood up to defend his colleagues in the Cabinet, but 
suddenly turned and attacked his former friends. The 
explanation of this strange proceeding seems to be that 
General Chanoine had just heard that his son had organ- 
ized and led a mutiny in Central Africa, and he found that 



72 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the Government was not disposed to show him any 
consideration. 

Again Picquart was arrested, this time on a charge of 
having scratched out a name in the address on le petit bleu, 
and substituted that of Esterhazy. Esterhazy's name had 
indeed been scratched out and rewritten in different ink, 
but Picquart declared this had been done by an enemy, 
to manufacture evidence against him. Picquart was in 
court, about to be tried upon this charge, when a demand 
for him came from the War Office, which desired to try 
him by court-martial ; but before he was handed over, 
Picquart stood up and asked leave to speak. " This even- 
ing, probably," he said, " I shall go to the Cherche Midi, 
and now will be the last time I can say a word in public. 
If there is found in my cell the rope of Lemercier- 
Picard, or the razor of Henry, then I shall have been 
assassinated. Men like me do not commit suicide." 

Lemercier-Picard was a forger and a spy, employed 
sometimes by the War Office, through the agency of du 
Paty de Clam. In December, 1897, ^^ ^'^^ forged certain 
documents in the interest of Dreyfus, and offered them 
to M. Reinach, a friend of the Dreyfus family, who, suspect- 
ing their authenticity, refused to buy them. He then sold 
them to Rochefort, the most bitter of anti-Dreyfusards, 
who published them in his paper, with head-lines, to say 
that " they had been bought from the Syndicate of Treason, 
devoted to writing up false documents." A month later 
Lemercier-Picard was found strangled in his own room, and 
the police for three days did not make his death public. 

The inquiry into the legality of the methods of the 
original court-martial, and the demand for revision of the 
trial in case the proceedings had been unfair, came before 
the Criminal Chamber of the Court of Cassation. Then 
M. de Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who was one of the judges, 
accused his colleagues of being prejudiced in favor of Drey- 
fus and the Jews. The result was that all the Chambers 
of the Court of Cassation were in March, 1899, ordered to 
investigate and publish their decision as to revision. 



THE DREYFUS CASE 73 

Up to this time, though all England and America were 
ringing with the name of Dreyfus, — a name that five years 
before not one man in one hundred thousand had ever 
heard, — Dreyfus himself remained utterly ignorant that 
any efforts had been made to serve him, or to restore his 
honor. His wife's letters were not allowed to tell him 
anything but news of herself and of their children. Not 
an echo from the disturbance created throughout the world 
by his unhappy history reached him in his place of 
imprisonment. 

Devil's Island is a mass of piled up rocks, without trees 
or verdure to relieve the eye, a barren waste parched by a 
burning sun. Convicts were usually allowed to walk about 
the island, to cultivate a little patch of ground, if anything 
could be grown in the rugged space allowed them, and 
each man had to build for himself a little hut upon the 
spot assigned him. But these privileges were denied to 
Dreyfus, who was to be kept au secret, being one who 
might reveal what was damaging to his superiors ; and when 
the subject of " revision " was agitating France, the rigors 
of his captivity, supported by the authority of M. Lebon, 
Minister for the Colonies, were greatly increased. The 
authorities excused themselves afterwards by saying that a 
strange ship had been seen hovering in the neighborhood, 
and they suspected some design to escape. False letters 
were addressed to Dreyfus on purpose that they might be 
seized and sent back to France as evidence against him, 
thus justifying the increase of cruel precautions by the 
authorities. The hut in which he lived had always been 
surrounded by a high paling, so that his only view was a 
little strip of sky. The hut and its surroundings joined a 
guard-house with a high tower looking out upon the sea, 
and commanding a view of every corner of the prisoner's 
plot of ground. When precautions were redoubled, he was 
chained day and night, a light was flashed upon him when 
asleep, in the hope that, awaking with a start, he might say 
something that could be turned against him. 

When at the second court-martial at Rennes a report 



74 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

was read of these cruelties, and of his sufferings in the 
Devil's Island, Dreyfus burst into tears. The document 
read was a report from the Minister of the Colonies to the 
Minister of War, giving extracts from letters of the Gov- 
ernor of French Guiana describing the dread the prisoner 
had expressed to the doctor when he feared he was losing 
his reason. There had been great hopes he would die 
before "revision." A coffin was sent from France with 
embalming materials, and orders were given to shoot 
him at the first sign of an alarm. 

At the conclusion of the report read at Rennes M. Lebon 
asked leave to explain. He said, " I do not dispute the 
accuracy of the report, but it is partial. The doctor never 
made any communication to me on the subject ; had he 
done so, I should have given orders to have the prisoner 
treated like other invalids." 

Then the President of the Court, turning to Dreyfus, 
asked, " Have you anything to say in regard to the deposi- 
tion?" "No, my colonel," was the reply; " I am here to 
defend my honor. I do not wish to speak here of the 
atrocious suffering, physical and moral, which for five years 
I — a Frenchman, and an innocent man — was subjected to 
on the Devil's Island." 

When the Chamber of Deputies had received the report 
of the Court of Cassation in favor of revision, a second 
court-martial was appointed to be held at Rennes, the 
ancient capital of Brittany, and Dreyfus was summoned from 
Devil's Island. A government war steamer, the " Sfax," 
was sent to bring him home. He was in the position he 
had been in in October and November of 1894 before the 
first court-martial. He was an accused man not yet tried. 
He was kept au secret on board the " Sfax." His wife had 
sent him his uniform with its lace and stripes restored, but 
he refused to put it on. Maitre Demange, his former 
counsel, sent him a copy of the proceedings before the 
Court of Cassation relating to " revision," which gave him 
the first idea that any effort had been made to ameliorate 
his fate, or to vindicate his honor. 



THE DREYFUS CASE 75 

At the same time the most cruel blow that had yet been 
dealt fell upon him. He was informed that his wife — his 
noble, his devoted wife — had been unfaithful to him ; that 
she did not wish for his return to France, and had an 
infant child. 

He had all along wondered why, when it seemed to him 
so simple a thing to prove his innocence, no steps had 
been taken by his family. He knew nothing of conspiracy, 
nothing of the way in which the peace of France, to say 
nothing of the good name of many in high places, was com- 
plicated in his trial. He had felt confident that General 
de Boisdeffre would stand his friend and procure his vindi- 
cation. He did not know that his brother Matthieu had 
spent half his fortune to that end, and that his faithful wife 
had exerted herself so nobly in his cause that all the civil- 
ized world looked on her with sympathy and admiration ; 
he did not know that Ministries had been upset to secure 
for him revision ; that the greatest novelist in France had 
for his sake gone into exile ; that officers had been cash- 
iered for maintaining he was innocent; that the Foreign 
Minister of Germany had publicly declared in the German 
Parliament that none of the agents of the Intelligence 
Department had ever, directly or indirectly, had any com- 
munication with Captain Dreyfus or received any com- 
munications from him, and that the Emperor William had 
supported this assertion on his word of honor as a sovereign, 
a soldier, and a gentleman. He was left to believe that 
the wife he loved, — to whom he had written loving letters, 
confiding in her affection, though surprised at what ap- 
peared to him her want of zeal, and her tardiness to deliver 
him from all that he was suffering, — had not only neglected 
him, but had disgraced and betrayed him. This lie would 
stand out as the most diabolical thing in history, were it 
not that a similar deception had been practised about the 
same time on a political prisoner in Italy. 

On July I, the " Sfax " came into port at Quiberon, a small 
seaport on the coast of Brittany. Dreyfus was landed from 
an open boat in a great storm of lightning, thunder, and 



76 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

rain, and taken in a landau to Rennes, where thousands 
of people, journalists, soldiers, politicians, gendarmes, police, 
witnesses, curious spectators, and revolutionists were looking 
out for him. He was driven to the prison and there awaited 
trial. He had not known that another court-martial im- 
pended. He fancied that his case had been settled by the 
Court of Cassation, and that after some formalities he 
would be set at liberty. 

The judges appointed were seven officers of artillery, his 
own branch of the service ; and seven men of the French 
army never could have been placed in a more trying posi- 
tion. We must always remember in considering the 
Dreyfus case that the object of this trial was not to find out 
whether Dreyfus was guilty or not guilty, but to condemn 
or to vindicate the members of the General Staff, — some 
of the highest officers in the army ; and that this was to be 
done by the judgment of subordinates, trained by lifelong 
military discipline to look up to them. The guilt or inno- 
cence of Dreyfus was a side issue in France. To us in 
England or America it seemed the one thing for which the 
court-martial had been assembled. But Frenchmen feared 
that on the issue of this trial depended the fate of their 
Republic, the tranquillity of France. What wonder that 
seven officers of the French army should have shrunk from 
responsibility? They were brave men, and I think they 
tried to do their duty. 

Before noon on the day after the prisoner's arrival, 
Madame Dreyfus, after a separation of five years, was ad- 
mitted to see her husband, in the presence, however, of an 
agent of the Government. All sympathetic hearts had 
thrilled with anticipations of this meeting, at the happiness 
of their reunion, and of hope revived. Alas ! we were dis- 
appointed. The meeting was cold and formal. Dreyfus 
was still under the influence of the cruel false reports made 
to him on board the " Sfax," and Madame Dreyfus left the 
prison in tears. Later in the day Maitre Demange, the 
prisoner's former counsel, was admitted to see him alone, 
and doubtless told him what all the rest of the world knew, 



THE DREYFUS CASE jy 

that Madame Dreyfus as a devoted wife was the heroine of 
the last decade of the nineteenth century. 

The trial was held in the Hall of the Lycee at Rennes, 
and began at half-past six on the morning of Aug. 7, 1899. 
At the upper end of the hall, behind the seats of the judges, 
hung a black cross with the white figure of One whose trial 
eighteen hundred years before was that of an innocent 
man who had taken voluntarily upon him the nationality 
of a Jew, had been accused by false witnesses, hounded 
to death by those who feared the consequences of his ac- 
quittal, and concerning whom the testimony of false wit- 
nesses *' agreed not together." 

Great exertions were made by members of the press to 
secure tickets of admission. There were reporters from 
every civilized nation under heaven. 

The seven artillery officers, with their President, Colonel 
Jouaust, whose name up to that time the public had never 
heard, took their seats. Then a small door opened, and 
two officers in artillery uniform came out of a side room. 
One was a white-haired man bald on the crown and tem- 
ples. In his face was suffering and a strong effort at self- 
command, but there was also some surprise. Until that 
moment he had had no conception of the prominence 
with which he stood before the world, — he, a simple cap- 
tain of artillery. 

He answered to his name, "Alfred Dreyfus, thirty-nine 
years," in a voice so unnatural, so strained, so hoarse, that 
those who heard it realized that he had hardly spoken for 
almost five years. 

The first three days were taken up by an examination 
in secret of the secret dossier, which contained six hundred 
documents, of which only about half a dozen had any 
bearing whatever on the case. 

In the limited space that can here be devoted to this 
subject, it is impossible to go through the details of the 
trial. One of the first witnesses was ex- President Casimir- 
Perier, but what he said was no evidence in the case. It 
amounted to a complaint that he, who was Chief of the 



78 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

State at the time of the first court-martial, had been told 
nothing about it. 

Then General Mercier testified. He was the real prose- 
cutor. He was more on trial than the prisoner, and the 
conviction of Dreyfus would be his own defence. At the 
close of his evidence he turned round in his chair and 
faced Dreyfus. 

" ' If I had the least doubt of his guilt,' he said, in his cold 
measured tones, ' I should be the first to come to Captain 
Dreyfus, and to say to him that I was honestly mistaken.' 

" ' You should say that now ! ' thundered the prisoner, in a 
voice which up to that time the court had heard only in 
muffled tones, but now it rang out loud and strong. With a 
cry that will forever haunt the memory of all who heard it in 
that crowded hall, Dreyfus sprang to his feet, his body bent 
forward, checked in mid-spring by the officer's hand laid gently 
on his arm, his fist shaking in the air, his head and livid face 
craned forward at Mercier, his teeth bared as if thirsty for 
blood. . . . His cry was half shriek, half sob, — a cry of rage, 
part anguish, part despair; a cry for pity, too, with a thrill of 
hope. Henceforward all knew what he was, and what he had 
endured — was still enduring. In six words he told us all 
the story of the man on the Devil's Island. 

" When the echoes of the cry had passed away, came Mercier's 
voice in a calm monotone, ' I should be the first to repair my 
error. . . .' 'It is your duty!' cried the prisoner. 'But I 
say in all conscience,' continued Mercier, ' that my convic- 
tion of his guilt is as firm and unshakable as ever.' " 

That day was Saturday, August 13. On Monday it was 
understood by all that Labori, the great cross-examiner, 
the junior counsel for the defence, was to take in hand 
General Mercier. It was likely to be the field day of the 
trial, for besides the cross-examination by Labori, Casimir- 
Perier had asked to be confronted with General Mercier, 
his former Minister of War. 

A few minutes after six o'clock Labori and his wife 
(an Australian by birth) left the cottage they had hired on 
the outskirts of Rennes, and proceeded toward the court- 
room. They were accompanied by Colonel Picquart and 



THE DREYFUS CASE 79 

another gentleman. Labori had with him the questions 
he had carefully prepared for the cross-examination of Mer- 
cier. Suddenly a man stepped from behind a fence, a 
shot was fired, and Labori fell. His wife had gone back 
to the house for her ticket of admission to the court, 
which she had left behind her. Wounded as he was, the 
great advocate had strength to put his arm across his 
breast, and to say to his two friends, " I beg you take my 
papers." In a few moments his wife was with him. He 
lay on the road with his head in her lap. Some laborers 
made a feeble effort to stop the would-be assassin, but 
most of those who saw the crime looked on with bewilder- 
ment and indifference. The man made his escape, and to 
this day, in spite of the vaunted intelligence of the French 
police, he has never been found. 

After a few moments of consternation and despair, 
Madame Labori left her husband in the care of his male 
friends, and rushed herself to the court-house, calling for 
assistance, and for a doctor. The audience in the Hall of 
the Lycde had just assembled, when the President of the 
Press rushed through the crowd, and leaping on a table, 
cried : " A doctor ! a doctor ! Come quickly to a 
wounded man ! It is Labori ! " The day before he had 
been in court in full health, a man of magnificent stature, 
looking like a viking, — the right arm of the defence, the 
hope of Dreyfus. 

It was thought the court would have been adjourned 
when the junior counsel for the prisoner had been stricken, 
but Colonel Jouaust, the President, decided to go on. The 
wish of the Government, and of all concerned, was to get 
through with the trial, and calm the excitement throughout 
France as soon as possible. 

The confrontation of M. Casimir-P^rier and General 
Mercier produced nothing ; it was not what had been 
expected. It was mainly an explanation of why the ex- 
President had thought it right to resign. 

Meantime Labori had been taken to his own home, 
where doctors, wife, and friends were day and night in 



80 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

attendance on him. Bulletins were issued every few hours, 
and flew to all parts of the earth over the wires, while 
telegrams of condolence poured in. 

Maitre Demange cross-examined General Mercier, but 
although he confused him and damaged his evidence, there 
was not the rout there would have been had the assailant 
been Labori. Four ex-Ministers of War and an ex-Presi- 
dent gave their witness on the same day, but nothing bear- 
ing on the case was elicited. All were there to talk about 
themselves. 

"The only person," says Steevens, "who appeared to bear 
the Dreyfus case in mind was Dreyfus. From time to time 
he made protestations in a thick and colorless voice, — always 
protestations of innocence. After that one moment's explosion, 
the upheaval of a continent of passion, he had ribbed himself 
in his reserve again. He was again the automaton who could 
speak but one word, — innocent, innocent, innocent ! " 

The man who was to take upon himself the office of 
prosecutor against the prisoner, and counsel for the 
defence, as regarded the officers of the General Staff, was 
General Roget. The most important witnesses in the case, 
men who could have told something, might they have spoken, 
were Esterhazy, du Paty de Clam, Schwartzkoppen, and 
Panizzardi ; none of these were allowed to give evidence. 
Esterhazy was safe in London, where he had acknowledged 
to an English journalist that he had written the bordereati. 
Du Paty de Clam, no longer an officer in the French army, 
declined to be confronted with other witnesses, and sent in 
a doctor's certificate, pleading that he was unable to 
appear. 

Schwartzkoppen and Panizzardi were eager to give their 
testimony in court, and their sovereigns were quite will- 
ing to give them leave to testify ; but the French Govern- 
ment decided that foreign testimony in the case was not 
to be heard. 

On June 12, 1899, ^^ Cabinet of M. Dupuy had re- 
signed. It had always set its face against " revision " and 



THE DREYFUS CASE 8 1 

, any opening of the Dreyfus case. A new Cabinet was 
formed ten days later by the President to undertake the 
difficult task of dealing with justice to Dreyfus, and steering 
at the same time the ship of state through a dangerous 
channel, where Scylla and Charybdis loomed on either 
side. 

The new Cabinet had M. Waldeck-Rousseau for its 
premier. He had been one of the candidates for the 
office of President in the preceding February, and had 
given up his votes to secure the election of M. Loubet. 
He is an Alsatian, a man of great worth and probity ; 
he was besides a friend of the Dreyfus family, but this 
made him very careful to avoid personal prejudice in 
dealing with the " affaire." M. Delcass^, the Foreign 
Minister, had held office in preceding Cabinets. It had 
fallen to his lot to recall Marchand from Fashoda, but 
he had secured in return great concessions from Eng- 
land in the matter of the French sphere of influence in 
Western Africa. But the most important Minister in the 
Waldeck-Rousseau Cabinet was General the Marquis de 
Gallifet, the Minister of War. He was eminently at 
that moment the man for the place, — a place that men- 
aced him with exceptional difficulties. He was a man of 
great vigor, ability, and courage. He had the confidence 
of the army. He was a known opponent of disorder and 
sedition. He had been accounted a Conservative, and was 
almost the only officer of the French army who chose to 
be known by his hereditary title ; but no man ever more 
faithfully served his government than he at this crisis 
served the republic of France. 

In a chapter of my volume upon France, which I have 
called " The Great Revenge," the acts for the suppression 
of the Commune, in which General de Gallifet took part, 
came under notice. I spoke of him more bitterly than I 
usually like to speak of public persons whose characters 
seem for a moment to be in my hands. I am sorry for 
this now ; I consider him a man of exceptional zeal, pru- 
dence, tact, patriotism, and courage. His conduct in the 

6 



82 LAST YEARS OF THE NIAETEENTH CENTURY 

War Ofifice while Minister of War seems to me worthy of 
our highest admiration. He came into ofifice with the 
most bitter prejudices against him. He was saluted, not 
only by the mob, but in the Chamber of Deputies, with 
cries of '' The assassin ! " His belief in the innocence of 
Dreyfus was well known. But prudence demanded that he 
should take no part in his favor. 

The public in France, and elsewhere, held its breath 
waiting to see how he would dare to deal with an army 
mutinous against the civil power, and backed apparently 
by a large part of the nation. He had been a splendid 
soldier, and the army admired him. He had been wounded 
in the abdomen in Mexico, and ever after wore a silver 
plate to keep his intestines in place. 

The Minister for the Interior was M. Millerand, who was 
affiliated with the Socialists. Great was the amazement of 
the public when the composition of the Cabinet was an- 
nounced, — De Gallifet and Millerand in partnership ! How 
could they govern France together? All men predicted 
that such a Cabinet could not last long ; but De Gallifet and 
Millerand had accepted their portfolios from motives of the 
purest patriotism. All members of the Cabinet were 
united on the question of securing justice for Dreyfus, 
while at the same time it was decided to do nothing that 
might assist in shaking down the form of government 
that to many men appeared in this crisis to totter. All 
honor to the men who for the sake of the tranquillity of 
their country did not shrink from accepting responsibility 
at such a time. 

But we must return to the court-martial at Rennes. It 
would be most interesting to go through the evidence 
brought forth on succeeding days of the trial, but space 
will not permit this. Any one who would like to read a 
reporter's account of it, can do so in G. W. Steevens's 
" Tragedy of Dreyfus." ^ 

1 I have used this freely, but I had also the reports printed day 
by day in an American paper, also many in the " Figaro " and Lon- 
don " Times." Besides pamphlets in French on t\^z affaire, American 



THE DREYFUS CASE 83 

By far the most interesting witness and almost the only 
one who seems to have spoken to the point was Colonel 
Georges Picquart. He spoke for two days. The first day, 
Steevens tells us, for seven hours and a half. ..." He 
went over the whole ground, from the secret documents to 
the latest fancies of Esterhazy, and seemed the only man 
who knew every foot of it. It was a masterpiece of rea- 
soning, the intellectual triumph of the trial." 

Among the witnesses was one Major Freystetter, who 
shortly before had served with distinction in Madagascar. 
He was a member of the court-martial in 1894, and testi- 
fied that his conviction of the prisoner's guilt had been 
formed on the testimony of the expert, and on that of du 
Paty de Clam and Henry. Only he thought it right to 
add that he was somewhat influenced by four documents 
shown to the judges in their private room, all of which it 
had since been proved were forged or falsified. One was 
the " canaille de D . . ." document, in another the name 
Dreyfus had been inserted. 

On August 28, twelve days after he was shot in the 
back, Maitre Labori was in his place again. He was full 
of vivacity and vigor, though he had barely escaped death, 
and had just risen from a sick bed. Every one welcomed 
him. General Mercier got up from his seat, walked over, 
and shook his hand. Did he know who had fired the 
shot? Who can say? 

When Labori resumed charge of the case, " the generals 
laid their heads together, the witnesses gave evidence with 
one eye on the court, the other on the cross-examiner. 
The very gendarmes seemed to wake up, and to follow the 
trial. The very soldiers of the guard outside bunched 
together, crept nearer, and peered into the hall. ... At 
the end of that day Dreyfus turned, and for the second 
time shook hands with his advocate, and for the first time 
his stony face melted into a smile." 

A good deal of evidence was brought by the prosecution 

readers may be referred to books by Conybeare, Hale, Barlow, and 
the letters of Dreyfus to his wife published by Harper. 



84 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

concerning the daily habits of Dreyfus when in the office 
of the General Staff. When I read it, I smiled to think 
that almost the same things could have been said one hun- 
dred years before concerning a young Corsican officer in 
the French army, had any one had personal motives for 
fastening on him a false imputation of being a spy. He 
was a foreigner. He, too, was not popular with his com- 
rades. He spent his time peering around, collecting all 
possible information with a view to his advancement. 
While other men amused themselves, he was always occu- 
pied in military affairs. He even went out in a boat in the 
dusk of a summer evening to draw plans of the fortifications 
of Toulon. Nay, had it been the interest of any one 
to make him out a traitor, who knows how much these cir- 
cumstances might have told against him ? He was a friend 
of the brother of Robespierre. Robespierre, as we know 
now, was in secret correspondence with Louis XVHI. ; 
what hindered the young artillery officer from transmitting 
plans and information through Robespierre to the English 
and the ^migr^s? Napoleon, it is true, was not a Jew, but 
in after life he came very near proclaiming himself a 
Mohammedan. He needed money ; Dreyfus had no 
temptation of that kind. 

M. Bertillon, the expert in handwriting, produced his 
scheme of what he called " gabarits," to demonstrate 
thereby that Dreyfus had written the bordereau. But 
though he had easily convinced the court-martial of 1894, 
the court-martial of 1899 neither believed his theories nor 
attempted to understand them. There was plenty of 
counter- evidence. 

At last, on September 8 came Maitre Demange's powerful 
speech for the defence. It was to be followed by one 
presumably even more powerful from Labori, when sud- 
denly the trial was closed by the government prosecutor, 
who said he had received orders from Paris that the case 
was to end. Though Demange's powers of oratory were 
not equal to those of Labori, his speech was admirable. 
Two of the judges were at one time moved to tears. " Not 



THE DREYFUS CASE 85 

one word did he say whereby the fiercest partisan against 
Dreyfus could be offended. He was there not to offend, 
but to persuade." 

After a recess of an hour and a half the President of 
the Court, Colonel Jouaust, with much emotion, pro- 
nounced the verdict," Guilty, by five votes to two." No 
one heard the concluding words he spoke, — '' with exten- 
uating circumstances." 

" With extenuating circumstances," seemed ridiculous 
to sympathizers with Dreyfus in England and America. 
What extenuating circumstances could there be if Dreyfus 
had been guilty of treason? On the contrary there were 
aggravating circumstances; his treachery had brought the 
French Republic to the verge of ruin. We did not know 
that "with extenuating circumstances," is in French law 
equivalent to our " with recommendation to mercy." 

Disheartened and indignant as we were at first by reason 
of the verdict, I cannot but think now that under the 
circumstances it was the best thing that could have been 
done. To pronounce Dreyfus not guilty would have been 
to bring in a verdict of guilty against his former judges, 
who had erred not from ignorance, but had deliberately 
withheld documents or falsified them. It would have set 
one half of France against the other. It would have 
roused the Nationalists, already dangerous, with the army 
and the clericals at their head. As it was, neither party 
triumphed. The Generals escaped a public trial. The 
so-called honor of the army was safe ; and the liberation 
of Dreyfus ten days later by the President's pardon seemed 
to make matters right for the prisoner, restoring all that 
he had lost, save only his military honor; for all the 
earth now knows that Alfred Dreyfus is an honorable, much 
injured, innocent man. If he is truly a patriotic Frenchman, 
methinks he will resign without complaint the barren satis- 
faction of military rehabilitation, sacrificing his heart's desire 
to the tranquillity of his country. The six officers asso- 
ciated with Colonel Jouaust were Major de Br^on, Major 
Merle, Captain Parfait, Captain Beauvais, and two others. 



86 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

No one knows how their vote stood, but it is beUeved 
that Colonel Jouaust was anxious that the verdict should be 
what it was, since the " extenuating circumstances " clause 
and the vote of 5 to 2 gave by law full power to the Presi- 
dent to exercise his clemency. 

It is said that Captain Beauvais publicly shook hands 
with Maitre Demange after his speech, that Major Merle 
was seen in tears, and that De Br6on was seen in a church 
the night before in long and earnest prayer. 

When the trial was at an end, France sank, as if ex- 
hausted with emotions, into what seemed almost a state of 
apathy, — the calm after a tempest. It was a relief even 
to anti-Dreyfusards when the President put forth his par- 
don. Frenchmen were thankful to be spared the ex- 
pected revolution, and the trial had come to an end so 
unexpectedly that those who "stood by," watching their 
opportunity to overthrow the Government, had no time 
to make their preparations. 

During the third week of September, ten days after the 
verdict had been rendered by the court-martial at Rennes, 
General the Marquis de Gallifet published an order to the 
corps commanders of the French army, and it was by 
them publicly read to the troops throughout France. It 
was also published in the " Journal Officiel," preceding 
the announcement of President Loubet's decree granting 
pardon to Dreyfus. In a preface to the order General de 
Gallifet calls attention to the fact that the health of Dreyfus 
had been seriously injured, and that he would not be able 
without danger to undergo further detention. He added 
that the Government " would not have met the wishes of a 
country desiring pacification if it had not hastened to efface 
all traces of the late painful conflict, and that President 
Loubet, by an act of lofty humanity, had given the first 
pledge of the work of appeasement which the good of the 
Republic seems to all men to demand." The order was 
as follows : — 

The incident is closed. The military judges, enjoying the 
respect of all, have rendered their verdict with complete inde- 



THE DREYFUS CASE 87 

pendence. We all, without harboring afterthoughts, bsnd to 
their decision. We shall in the same manner accept the action 
that a feeling of profound pity has dictated to the President of 
the Republic. There can be no further question of reprisals 
of any kind. Hence, I repeat it, the incident is closed. I ask 
you, and if it were necessary I should command you, to forget 
the past, in order that you may think seriously of the future. 
With you, and all my comrades, I proclaim, Vive VArinee, 
which belongs to no party, but to France alone. 

Gallifet, 

When Dreyfus, waiting in a side room, was informed of 
the verdict by his counsel, Maitre Demange, who was in 
tears, he wept at first, and said : " Take care of my wife. 
Tell her to take courage. Help her to bear this cruel, 
unmerited blow. I think of her, and my poor children. 
They will be branded as the children of a traitor. But 
I am innocent." 

The verdict was a compromise, intended to save France 
from the horrors of revolution, and yet to open for the 
prisoner a door of escape. It was in itself the justifi- 
cation of Dreyfus, for if the five officers who voted against 
him had had any conscientious belief that he was guilty, 
how could they have found any extenuating circumstances 
in the case, and how have dared to let loose such a 
double-dyed traitor, who after ten or five years were out, 
might again disturb the peace of France ? In truth, they all 
petitioned the Government for clemency. But their verdict 
was received throughout Europe and America with bitter 
indignation. The leading newspaper in Russia — the 
dearly prized ally of France — speaks thus of it : — 

"They have sentenced a man whose sad fate it is to be the 
scapegoat for the crimes of the General Staff. Now that the 
stage has been cleared of its sham guilt, and that the gener- 
als, spies, judges, persecutors, and lawyers have left the scene, 
the audience will recognize with quivering hearts all the taw- 
driness of costumes and crudity of mechanism by means of 
which the French Republic sought to make us believe its 
regime perfect. . . . The trial has been a tragic comedy, 



88 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

which may end with the booming of cannon under another 
leadership, and with the participation of other actors." 

From the fulfilment of this prophecy, France was saved 
by the courage, prudence, tact, and patriotism of President 
Loubet and his Minister of War. 

On September 19 Dreyfus received his pardon. I think 
the action of President Loubet may have been previously 
intimated to Madame Dreyfus, for she and Maitre Labori 
had made their preparations. There had been much talk 
concerning the probability that Dreyfus would be assassi- 
nated on leaving his prison ; it was therefore necessary to 
take great precautions, and to put the public on the wrong 
scent. Madame Dreyfus hired a cottage at Folkestone, 
and it is said she sent trunks marked with her name to 
Liverpool. But the destination determined on was Car- 
pentras, a little town about twenty miles from Avignon, 
where Madame Valabrogne, sister of Dreyfus, and wife 
of a cloth merchant, had a villa. 

At three o'clock on the morning of Thursday, Septem- 
ber 20, Captain Dreyfus, after packing his trunk in prison, 
waited for M. Viguier, Chief of the Secret Service, who was 
to see him safely on the train and as far as Nantes upon the 
way to Bordeaux. They left the prison in a cab, which 
they quitted, however, before they reached the railroad 
station. There Dreyfus, no longer a prisoner, was safely 
seated in a sleeping-car, under the care of his brother, 
Matthieu Dreyfus, his nephew, Paul Valabrogne, and a 
reporter from the " Figaro," who had obtained leave, some- 
how, to make the journey with him. What he tells of it I 
found very interesting, but I fear my extract will be a long 
one. To save space, however, 1 shall abridge the account 
occasionally. 

"The train moves at 8.58 A.M. I am seated opposite to Cap- 
tain Dreyfus. I am surprised at the effect he produces on me. 
I had expected to find him hard, mistrustful, gloomy, and bitter. 
I saw before me a man evidently much broken in health, with 
fine, regular features calm and mild in expression. The train 



THE DREYFUS CASE 89 

rolls onward. Matthieu Dreyfus looks at his brother with ten- 
der eyes. ' Well,' he asks, ' are you comfortable ? ' ' Oh ! 
indeed I am very well,' was the reply. ' And you forget how 
I am enjoying the sense of freedom, for it is good to feel 
free, free, free; not to feel people everlastingly around you, 
spying on each movement, each gesture. That, mind you, is of 
all the most odious, insupportable thing. Oh ! to have felt a 
spy's eye always on you for five years ! Oh ! it was horrible ! ' 

" 'Don't tire yourself too much,' observed Matthieu, timidly. 

" ' Let me speak,' replied the Captain. ' I feel the want of 
speaking. I have scarcely spoken for five years. Then, too, 
I feel so well, no fatigue, no pain, no excitement ; probably to- 
morrow I shall suffer for it, but to-day I intend to do whatever 
I like.' 

" The name of General Mercier was mentioned by chance. 

'"What impression,' I said, 'did his deposition make on 
you ? ' 

" 'He is a malicious man,' Dreyfus said sharply, ' and a 
dishonest man, but I do not think he is conscious of the extent 
of the evil he has wrought. He is too intelligent for me to be 
able to say that "he is unconscious of what he is doing, but if he 
is mentally conscious of it, he is morally unconscious. He is a 
man without moral sense.' 

" As the train rushes on through a beautiful country, Captain 
Dreyfus says : ' How pretty this country is ! Look at that little 
village, those chickens, the hens, the tall trees outlined by the 
mist. Think that for one whole year I saw only sky and sea ; 
and during four years I saw only the sky, — a square of brilliant 
blue over my head, metallic, hard, and always the same, without 
a cloud. And when I came back to France — you know how it 
was — by night in the midst of a terrible storm, taken from a 
boat, driven in a carriage to prison. These are the first trees I 
have seen. How I should like,' he continued, ' to run about 
those meadows like a child and amuse myself with nothing. I 
am like a convalescent, coming back to life again.' 

" He told us of the infinite sorrow he had felt for the death of 
Scheurer-Kestner, to whom in large part he owed his liberty. 
'What fine characters,' he said, 'have displayed themselves 
in this affair ! I think I have received more than five thousand 
letters since my return to France, without counting those that 
my wife has received. Oh ! it has done me good. Even 
officers upon active service have written to me. One comrade 
wrote, " Glad at your return. Glad at your approaching reha- 
bilitation." I suffered from those depositions in which men 



90 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

came forward to say things which had no connection with the 
trial, but which they thought might injure me. I do not think 
it was out of malice to me, but it was done to please the chiefs. 
I never could bend myself to such discipline.' 

" ' How do you explain the animosity against you since 1894 ? ' 

" ' I think the cause of it is rather complex,' Dreyfus answered. 
' In the first place, I was believed to be guilty. It could never 
have been suspected that they would have plunged so light- 
heartedly into what they knew to be error. Then there was 
antisemitism in a latent state, and, lastly, my own behavior 
may have had something to do with it. My manner was 
too curt, as I now think, with my superiors. When I entered 
the General Staff, I paid no visit to any one. In my deahngs 
with my chiefs I always retained my outspokenness and inde- 
pendence. If a plan or any piece of work seemed to me to be 
badly conceived, I did not hesitate to say so. I know superiors 
do not like that.' 

'"And what,' I asked, 'do you think of Esterhazy?' He 
paused like a savant considering an hypothesis. 

"'I think he is a swindler, — a swindler always in want of 
money. That was his motive. A crime must have a motive, 
and that was wanting in my case. No one ever saw me touch 
a card. I was no gambler. It was said that in my student 
days I had led a fast life. How then could I have taken the 
ninth place on leaving the college? Don't people know what 
arduous work the examinations mean ? How can work be car- 
ried on with dissipation ? If a man is suspected to be a crimi- 
nal, the first thing to be done is to find out the motive for his 
crime. Treason against his country is the greatest crime a 
man can commit. A murderer, a thief, may find some excuse. 
But treason has no extenuating circumstances ; it is a crime 
against collectivity.' 

"'What effect did the verdict have upon you?' Sadly he 
answered, ' It was first of all anguish ; then stupefaction ; then 
very comforting when I learned that two officers had had the 
courage to declare me entirely innocent. I swear that those 
two brave officers were right.' 

" ' What is exactly,' said Matthieu, ' the climate over there, 
on Devil's Island ? ' 

" ' One hundred and four to one hundred and twenty-three 
degrees by day, and never below seventy-seven at night,' was 
the answer. ' That was the most exhausting thing about it, 
for one can bear heat by day, provided one breathes a little 
fresh air at night.' 



THE DREYFUS CASE 9 1 

" ' And you never knew anything of what was being done in 
France for you ? ' 

" ■ Never a word. Not a single word. From time to time the 
rigors were redoubled. I know now this was after speeches in 
the Chamber from the Ministers of War when they ascended 
the rostrum and declared I had been legally and justly con- 
demned. I felt the effect of what they said through the 
medium of my jailers. They cut off my food, or my reading, 
or my work, or my walk, or the sight of the sea.' 

" ' How did you succeed in warding off insanity in 1896 and 
1897?' 

"'As I had resolved to live, I removed from my table the 
photographs of my wife and children, the sight of whom made 
me suffer, and weakened me. I no longer wished to see them, 
and I ended by regarding them only as symbols, without the 
human figures the sight of which unnerved me. I wanted to 
live for my wife and children and to preserve my energy, for ' 
. . . (and he repeated this several times) ' when one has 
resolved to do one's duty, one must keep on to the end.' 

" Thus talking like a man awakened from a dream, Dreyfus 
proceeded on his journey." 

At Avignon he was met by a carriage from Carpentras, 
and by other members of his family. There the corre- 
spondent of the " Figaro " parted from him. 

He visited him, however, the next day at Carpentras, — a 
place famous in history for having incurred the fierce 
wrath of the Convention, which gave orders that all the 
masons in its department should be called together to raze 
it to the ground. They likewise gave it a new name, that 
the old might be forever forgotten. It was by the position 
of postmaster at Carpentras that M. Thiers in the days of 
his prosperity endeavored to provide for the prodigal father 
whom he had never seen. 

The house of Madame Valabrogne stood in the suburbs 
of the little city. The Captain's brothers and sisters, with 
their wives, husbands, and children, were assembled on the 
porch. The parents of Madame Dreyfus had gone to Paris 
to bring the children. Madame Dreyfus was upstairs in 
attendance on her husband. 

The correspondent asked if the sad story of their father's 



92 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

life during the five years he had been absent would be told 
the children. Those present thought not, but their father 
must decide. The little girl was hardly more than six, — she 
would probably not be told ; but the Uttle boy, who was 
eight, was a precocious and intelligent child, to whom it 
might be better it should be related. 

Soon Dreyfus and his wife came down to see their visitor, 
who remarked in the faces of all the Dreyfus family (the 
Captain's included) genial kindliness when they smiled. 

" It seems to me," said Dreyfus, as he seated himself at 
ease in a wicker chair, " as if I were in a dream. The 
fact is, I am not sure. I feel I do not yet belong to myself, 
and I allow myself to be led like a child. I do not yet 
realize the little details of life." 

He was asked when he had felt the first gleam of hope 
on the Devil's Island. 

" On November i6th of last year," he said, " when I re- 
ceived the despatch from the Court of Cassation which 
read, ' Convict Dreyfus is informed that the Criminal 
Chamber has declared his demand for revision of his trial 
in 1894 admissible.' But I did not understand clearly 
what was meant. I regarded the despatch as a sort of 
acknowledgment of my numerous petitions. And yet hope 
reached me from that day. I began to feel that there 
might be a possible ending. Do you understand? Up to 
that time I could see no end." 

And here a curtain falls on Dreyfus. We are left to be- 
lieve him happy — almost happy — with his wife and 
children, enjoying earth and sky and the free air. But 
with a haunting wish to be something more than pardoned ; 
that is to say, to be made an honorable man again in the 
sight of the French army, and of all the world. But that 
end has assuredly been attained, if not announced officially ; 
and his children, to whatever parts of the earth they wan- 
der, will find all men do them honor when they hear their 
father's name. 



CHAPTER V 

PRESIDENT tuiLK LOUBET 

'T^HE death of President Faure was so very unexpected 
-'- that there was no time to organize revolutionary plots 
concerning who should be his successor. Some persons 
have hinted that as M. Faure's views were believed to be 
in favor of a Plebiscitary Republic, he possibly had indulged 
in schemes to bring about this change in the Constitution, 
foreseeing that the chances were that he would be chosen 
for life as first Plebiscitary President. His somewhat sly 
scheme of sending Major Marchand across Africa to frus- 
trate any designs formed by England in relation to the 
Soudan, miscarried shortly before his last illness, which 
was attributed by many to mental worry over the failure 
of his plans. Had they succeeded, he would have won 
such popularity in France that he might indeed have 
aspired to her highest reward. There were others who, 
fathoming this scheme, thought they saw in it a possible 
change of rulers, and in any alteration of the government 
of France beheld a chance to place the helm of State, not 
in the hands of M. Faure for life, but in those of an 
Orleanist, or a Bonapartist Pretender. 

As it proved, the " Nationalists " had no time to do 
anything, — not even to rally their adherents or to issue 
proclamations. If the army could have been stimulated 
by intrigue into action, that chance was spoiled by the 
impatience and tomfoolery of M. Paul D^roulede.^ 

1 It pains me to cast slurs on M. Paul Deroulede. I had long 
admired him as a poet of the same school as M. Fran9ois Coppee, 
and I translated into English verse, his charming little poem called 
" Le Sergent." The translation was published in *' Lippincott's 
Magazine," December, i88i. 



94 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The Presidential election, Jan. 7, 1899, by the joint vote 
of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies, assured the 
stability of the Republican form of government, and France 
entered, to all appearance, into a period of peace. 

The following anecdote concerning the nommation of M. 
Loubet has been t61d in an article contributed to "Good 
Words " by Emily Crawford, whose reports from Rennes in 
the days of the Dreyfus court-martial we all read with deep 
interest in the summer and early autumn of 1889. 

M. Clemenceau, as he was going to bed on the night before 
the Presidential election, received a visit from a friend who was 
a member of the Chamber of Deputies. " I am," he said, 
" much perplexed for whom I should vote to-morrow. Bris- 
son [the Moderate Radical] having been defeated by Duchand 
for the presidency of the Chamber, has no chance. We must 
not risk letting Mdhne [the Reactionary] come in, whatever 
we do. It unfortunately happens that he has every chance, 
if we put forward a deputy." M. Clemenceau thought a 
moment, and the name, standing, and qualifications of M. Lou- 
bet flashed across his mind. "Let it be," he said, " Loubet. 
All Republicans worthy of the name can agree on Loubet. He 
is sound on the Dreyfus case from a conviction of innocence, 
but as he has not had occasion publicly to declare his opin- 
ions, he has not excited animosity; nor will he before the elec- 
tion takes place, which will be in a few hours. He has just 
the temper and mental complexion that are good for the office, 
and knows the ropes in both Chambers. Yes — let it be Lou- 
bet." The visitor asked Clemenceau whether the " Aurore " 
had gone to press ; for if it had not, he would go at once to 
that journal, giving it the pith of M. Clemenceau's remarks. 
The latter said : " Try," and then wrote an article which 
ended in these words " Mon candidat est Loubet.'" He laughed 
as he wrote them, because he himself was not one of the 
electors. It appeared the next morning. All the electors read 
it on their way to Versailles. Every one who wished the Drey- 
fus affair settled seemed mentally to repeat the words, " Mojt 
candidat est Loubet^'' And in the afternoon of the same day 
M. Loubet came back to Paris President of the Republic. 

In the mountains of the C^vennes (the old Protestant 
stronghold in the south of France) the name of loubet 




PRESIDENT LOUBET. 



PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 95 

is given to a shepherd dog of peculiar kindliness and 
sagacity. 

For five and thirty years M. Loubet was a lawyer, but a 
lawyer who would neither disavow nor strain an incon- 
venient truth. He retains something of the accent of his 
native province, the Drome at the foot of the Alps ; but 
his manners are courteous, those of an experienced man 
of the world, though the writer I have just quoted says, 
" He is primarily rather a citizen than a gentleman." 

He began his public life by being Mayor of Montelimar, 
the chief town of his district ; then he was Chairman of 
the County Council of the Drome, then Senator for that 
Department, Minister of the Interior in 1892, and then 
President of the Senate. The Drome, his own department, 
is devoted to him. In Montelimar, where besides being 
Mayor he carried on his law practice for thirty-five years, 
he has never ceased to be called simply Monsieur Emile, 
nor has his elevation made any difference in his friendly 
and affectionate relations with his fellow-townsmen. 

He may not be a great man, but he has been admirable 
in all the relations of hfe, and has faithfully fulfilled all the 
duties that have been entrusted to him. His wife, who 
is now a grandmother, is still a handsome woman. " She 
has no ambition to shine as a fine lady, but takes her place 
among the great ones of the world with ease and dignity." 

When M. Loubet found himself President, he wrote let- 
ters to middle-class friends and neighbors, saying he hoped 
his altered position would not lead them to imagine that 
there could be any change in their friendly relations with 
himself and with his family. These persons were all 
delighted with his elevation, but his mother could not be 
reconciled to his change of fortune. She was sure, good 
woman ! — that it would not be for his happiness, and that 
it would interfere with his much-cherished visits to her at 
the old farm. 

Some very pretty anecdotes have been circulated con- 
cerning the President's dutiful obedience to his mother. 
In the part of France where he was born and bred, mother- 



96 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

worship is the strongest of all family ties, but in all the 
other relations of domestic life M. Loubet has been no less 
admirable. His taste is for rural life, life on the old home- 
stead from which his destiny has exiled him. " What I 
long for, and mean to do," he said to one of his old friends 
at Mont^limar, " when I quit the Elysee, is to go and end 
my days on the old farm." i 

The Comte de Paris, the heir of the royal house of 
Orleans, was born in 1838 ; and in the midst of the rejoic- 
ing over this event, Emile Loubet, who was to rule France 
in his stead, was born. 

His father and mother were pious people and good 
Catholics, but not of the ultra-Clerical school. He is a 
brave man, brave morally and physically. His moral brav- 
ery he showed in the Dreyfus affair, when every man in 
office found it needed courage to act on his convictions 
if he had doubts concerning the court-martial of 1894. 
M. Faure had not dared to face the question of " revis- 
ion ; " he dreaded the danger ; and the obloquy of giving 
presidential approval to a new trial was handed over to 
M. Loubet. Knowing as we now do the terrible agitation 
that was to be produced throughout the world, and 
throughout France, we may hesitate whether to attribute 
the timidity of M. Faure to patriotic prevision or to 
pusillanimity. The issue of the new trial would neces- 
sarily be either the condemnation of Dreyfus for deliver- 
ing documents to the enemies of France, or his acquittal ; 
in which case some of the chief generals in the beloved 
army of France were guilty of worse treachery. M. Faure 
shrank from sanctioning revision. 

President Loubet's arrival in Paris from Versailles two 
days after the death of President Faure was the occasion 
of a demonstration on the part of the Parisian mob, led 
by MM. D^roulede, Rochefort, and Marcel Habert; in 
other words, by men who had played parts in the old 
Boulangist party, and were ready for any outbreak that 

1 It is situated not far from Marsanne whence Madame de Sevigne 
dated some of her letters. 



PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 97 

would either upset or discourage the existing government. 
The crowd shouted " Panamaist ! " for M. Loubet had 
been in a Cabinet, in 1892, which it was thought had 
tried to save France from pubUc scandal by shielding lead- 
ing men who were compromised in that unhappy affair. 

D^roulede endeavored, but without success, to rouse 
the soldiers called out to welcome the new President, and 
induce them to march on the Elys^e, but, much to his 
surprise, the action of the troops was restrained by General 
Roget, on whose sympathy and assistance he had relied. 
Whatever we may think of Roget when he volunteered to 
play the part of public prosecutor at the court-martial at 
Rennes, he was above all things a soldier. He knew his 
duty and the duty of the troops under his command in the 
face of a mob. 

A few days later, President Loubet sent his first message 
to the Senate and Chamber ; in it he said, " The rights 
which I possess under the Constitution I will not permit 
to be weakened in my hands." 

These words strike the keynote of M. Loubet's policy, 
and of his character — which is firm. He has gray hair 
and a gray beard ; some think he bears a strong resem- 
blance to President Benjamin Harrison. 

The " reptile " section of the Paris press at once as- 
sailed the new President with indecent vituperation. If 
he had been a notorious criminal, he could not have been 
more shamefully reviled. But through this storm of brutal 
threats and personal misrepresentation, M. Loubet went 
serenely on his way. M. Deroulede, the chief agitator, was 
put under arrest, and the League of Patriots, so powerful 
when Boulanger was its leader, in his hands made itself 
absurd. 

M. Loubet did not at once change his ministers. The 
Cabinet of M. Charles Dupuy, though it was strongly Anti- 
Dreyfusard, remained in office until it resigned early in 
June, when the united Chambers of the Court of Cassation 
determined on " revision." 

M, Loubet had made up his mind from the first that it 
7 



98 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

was time to draw the line between liberty and license, and 
to check the torrent of abuse and accusation which had 
swept over France for four years and left the reputation 
of few men in high office unassailed. Ranged against him 
were a large number of men, most of them without political 
convictions, whose only policy was that of overthrowing the 
government. These called themselves " Nationalists." 
They were the party of Boulanger bereft of their showy 
leader. This party had in its ranks Legitimists, Orleanists, 
\\\&jeunesse doree of society, Bonapartists, a section of the 
Socialists, Anarchists led by Rochefort, anti-Semites with 
Jules Guerin and Drumont for their leaders, Communards 
and Clericals, all, in short, who thought that change might 
in some way promote their private views or personal 
ambitions. But there was no cohesion in the miscellane- 
ous groups of the Nationalist party. They needed a 
leader, and above all they needed the support of the 
army. For the latter, they bid high by supporting the 
generals in the Dreyfus case, and they lost their stake. 

Among the various Pretenders to the French throne not 
one was fitted to become a popular idol. For a few days 
when Marchand reached Toulon from Fashoda, they had 
hopes of turning him into another Boulanger. But Major 
Marchand was an honorable soldier and an honest gentle- 
man ; he slipped quietly into private life out of their hands. 

The Duke of Orleans (Philippe VII., as he calls himself) 
is the most prominent of the Pretenders. Louis Philippe's 
family of five sons and three daughters were men and 
women of distinguished merit, but their high qualities do 
not seem to have descended to the third generation. Wit- 
ness Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria, Prince Henri of Orleans, 
and Philippe VII. The latter has courted popularity dur- 
ing the last two years by a proclamation put forth for what 
he would have called " the defence of the army," expressing 
the strongest views of an anti-Dreyfusard on the burn- 
ing question of the day ; and when a vulgar Parisian cari- 
caturist in " Le Rire " took occasion from the early reverses 
of England in South Africa to make shameful caricatures of 



PRESIDENT JiMILE LOUBET 99 

the Queen, so dear to all her subjects, the Duke of Orleans 
forgetting the constant kindness shown in England to his 
exiled family, wrote a letter of congratulation to the man 
who had endeavored to hold the venerable lady up to 
scorn and ridicule.^ 

He lost the sympathy and confidence of the leaders of 
the united Orleanist and Legitimist parties when, in 1896, 
he snubbed the Due d'Audiffret-Pasquier, who had long 
managed their affairs in France, by telling him that ht 
knew better than he did the proper course for a king to 
pursue ; and when he insulted the Royal Family of Eng- 
land and all Englishmen, by his public commendation of 
the caricaturist in *' Le Rire," he lost the support and friend- 
ship of the Due de Luynes, the richest nobleman in France, 
who had been his familiar friend and chamberlain. 

When, in 1890, he broke the law of exile and appeared 
one day in Paris to demand, as a French citizen, to do duty 
as a French soldier, the escapade produced no effect what- 
ever on the public, and though he was sent to prison and 
released a few months later. Frenchmen regarded his for- 
tunes with indifference. Since then he has amused himself 
by playing the part of a sham king, publicly touching for 
the King's Evil, issuing court orders in the style of Louis 
XIV., etc. ; instead of taking his exile with the dignified 
composure which earned respect and admiration for his 
uncles. But when France was agitated by the Dreyfus 
case, his " Nationalist " followers thought they saw a chance 
to promote him to be their nominal leader. His party was 
backed by the Clericals, in spite of the admonitions of 
the Pope ; its chiefs counted on considerable support from 
officers of the army; they expected votes and sympathy 
from electors who were weary of the rule of lawyers, and 
from those who demanded a vigorous foreign policy for 

^ The Prince de Joinville, who died recently in Paris, expressed his 
deep displeasure at such ungrateful and ungentlemanly conduct on 
the part of his nephew. I remember when the Prince de Joinville 
was held by English people to be a fire-eater, the most conspicuous 
enemy of England in France or elsewhere. 

LofC. 



lOO LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

France, which, though it must ruin her finances, might 
restore her national prestige. 

Early in 1899 the Duke of Orleans took up his resi- 
dence in Brussels, and then, for a month, he disappeared 
from public view. Meantime, while he still lived en evi- 
dence at Brussels, he appointed M. Buffet his agent-general 
to manage his affairs in Paris, and word was sent to leading 
Nationalists throughout France to hold themselves in readi- 
ness. ■ Deroulede's insane attempt at riot was the first step 
taken ; it was more an outburst of ill-feeling than a serious 
attempt at revolution, and its failure wrecked the whole 
plan. M. Deroulede and his coadjutor, M, Marcel Habert, 
were arraigned on a charge of inciting soldiers to insubor- 
dination. Their trial was itself of small importance, but it 
had a great deal of dramatic and sensational interest. 
Neither of the accused denied the charge. M. Deroulede 
seized the occasion to air, in the most jaunty fashion, his an- 
tagonism to the Government, and declared that what he 
desired for France was not a Monarchy, but a Plebiscitary 
Republic. All the defendants and their counsel made 
orations setting forth their own patriotism, and making 
bitter attacks on President Loubet. Deroulede, when 
called to order for his words, repeated them, and invited 
the judges to send him to prison. The jury, after being 
out twenty minutes, returned a verdict for acquittal, and 
M. Deroulede was left to enjoy his triumph. M. Yves 
Guyot wrote ironically of Ddroulede in the " Si^cle " : 

" Ddroul^de is admirable. A barrister's son who knows full 
well the tricks of pettifogging and who does not fail to make 
use of them, he knows that his prestige is founded on his 
making himself grotesque. He knows that it is not true in 
France that ridicule kills if one dares to be audaciously and 
cynically ridiculous. Ridicule is the best advertisement; it 
brings one into notice. A hundred serious actions are worth 
less than the astonishing hat and coat of a half-pay officer in 
18 15. Ddroul^de has thought out a new and special role — 
that of the puppet of patriotism. Some men consider the best 
way of serving their country is to do deeds that shall increase 
her glory, her reputation, or her wealth. Deroulede has 



PRESIDENT JSMILE LOUBET ioi 

thought that true patriotism may consist in mounting every 
night on trestles in a ridiculous costume, uttering loud cries and 
making- frantic gestures." 



On Sunday, June 7, 1899, three days after the acquittal 
of this mountebank and his fellow-conspirator, President 
Loubet went to Auteuil to attend the races. The day was 
known as that of the Grand Prix. A hostile reception 
had been prepared for the President by the League of 
Patriots, the royalist section of the Nationalist party. No 
sooner was his carriage on the course than its occupants 
found themselves the objects of a riotous demonstration. 
In an attempt to defend the President, several policemen 
were severely hurt, and Count Cristiani struck the Presi- 
dent over the head with his cane, crushing his hat over 
his eyes, but happily doing him no further injury. All 
over the race-course there were small fights between society 
men and the police, supported by " law and order " 
Republicans. There was great excitement ; thirty arrests 
were made ; and some of the fashionable clubhouses were 
closed on the plea that they were nests of conspiracy. 
The affair at that time went no further ; the Jeunesse Roy- 
aliste waited for some future occasion, when they hoped 
to rally their forces round a prominent royalist general, or 
possibly some future King or Emperor. 

In the following week the Dupuy Ministry resigned- 
It has never been precisely known why the Chamber of 
Deputies voted its downfall. M. Dupuy was Prime Minis- 
ter in 1894, when Dreyfus was first accused, tried, and 
condemned, and many people thought, that foreseeing 
all the scandals that must be brought to light by a new 
trial, he was unwilling to take part in a revision which 
must result in probing the actions of the General Staff, and 
probably in the punishment and disgrace of many men in 
high places. 

It was not easy to form a new Ministry. Leading men 
shrank from the tremendous responsibility of laying hands 
upon the helm of State in such a crisis. At last a Cabinet 



I02 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

of Concentration, as it was called, was formed of some of 
the best and most patriotic men of all the groups in the 
Republican party. It included M. Waldeck-Rousseau as 
Premier, M. Delcasse as Minister for Foreign Affairs, M. 
Millerand, the Socialist leader who with Jaures had taken 
the part of Dreyfus, and General de Gallifet, Minister of 
War. I have spoken of this Ministry in the Dreyfus 
chapter. 

General de Gallifet began his rule in the War Office by 
reprimanding and disciplining a Colonel and a General, the 
former for having read an " order of the day " to his whole 
regiment quartered at Rennes, denouncing the Government 
in vile and bitter language for the part it was taking in 
securing a new trial for a traitor. Forthwith the offending 
Colonel was transferred to another department, and Gen- 
eral Julliard, commanding the whole garrison at Rennes, 
retorted by another order of the day in which he declared 
that the offending Colonel enjoyed the full confidence of 
his superiors. General de Gallifet was not the man to pass 
over without punishment this direct attack on his authority. 
He removed, in the same week. General Zurlinden, Mili- 
tary Governor of Paris, an out-spoken anti-Dreyfusard, and 
struck terror into the high officers of the Army disposed 
to insubordination. 

During the months of July, August, and September, 
France, and indeed all Europe and America, were in a 
feverish state of excitement about the Dreyfus trial. I have 
told of this already, but I have not told of two other strange 
excitements that during the court-martial at Rennes kept 
the Parisians in a state of restless anxiety. 

On August 2 1 the Anarchists, " fighting for their own 
hand," attempted an emeute, independent of Royalists and 
the jeunesse doree. Sebastian Faure (no relation of the late 
President) was their leader. After rioting in the streets 
and fighting cavalry and mounted police, they attacked 
churches in the poorer quarters of the city, and smashed 
their windows. Then they marched toward the Boulevard 
du Temple, where they forced an entrance into the Church 



PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 1 03 

of St. Joseph. They hewed down the oak doors, and, burst- 
ing in, commenced a scene of pillage and sacrilege ; altars 
and statues were thrown down and broken, pictures were 
hacked in pieces, and stones were hurled at the Crucifix, — 
all this by an anti-Semitic mob ! At last it endeavored to 
set the Church on fire ; but the police arrived in time, and 
numbers of the rioters were arrested. 

Meantime in the office of a newspaper, the " Anti-Juif," 51 
Rue Chabrol, M. Jules Gu^rin and his anti-Semitic assistants 
successfully resisted the police for six weeks. The military 
and police might easily have taken Fort Chabrol, as it was 
called, by storm, and killed its garrison ; but the general 
belief was that the Duke of Orleans, who had been missing 
from Brussels, was among its defenders. This idea Avas 
strengthened when the Archbishop of Paris paid a visit to 
M. Waldeck-Rousseau on Gu^rin's behalf. Provisions, 
when they ran low, were surreptitiously introduced into the 
small two-storied house held by its anti-Semitic garrison. 

The " Matin," which professed to know the Duke of 
Orleans's whereabouts, wrote thus concerning him : — 

" Far from the crowd, surrounded by devoted friends who are 
watching over him, he is waiting the decisive judgment^ that 
will compel him, perhaps in spite of himself, to leave his 
mysterious retreat. When his hiding place is discovered, more 
than one will be surprised, and his lieges will not bear him any 
ill will for his obligatory silence." 

On September 20, the day that the pardon of Dreyfus 
was announced, Gu^rin and his garrison surrendered at 
half-past four in the morning. The Government had 
made preparations for a final assault that day, but Gu^rin 
decided to yield without bloodshed. 

The Chief of Police and M. Millevoye, a Socialist 
deputy, approached the door, and after some parley Gu^rin 
quietly surrendered. When his companions, who were 
clustered on a porch, offered to yield, the police, without 

1 The "decisive judgment" expected was probably the acquittal of 
Dreyfus, which would have been accepted as a signal for revolution. 
If so, France owes gratitude to the much-reviled judges at Rennes. 



I04 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

taking their names or making any investigation as to their 
persons, told them they were at hberty and could go 
where they pleased. A number of cabs and fiacres were in 
waiting, and they were driven off in different directions. 
There was no proof that the Duke of Orleans was among 
them, only his handbag was found in the Fort by the 
police when they took possession. The Duke soon after 
left Brussels for Turin, and apparently has given up all 
hopes of a revolution, at least until the Exposition is over. 

At the time of the Gu^rin surrender, a state trial of 
twenty-two persons for conspiracy was going on at the 
Luxembourg. Among the accused was D^roulede on his 
second trial, together with members of the League of 
Patriots, of the Anti-Semitic League, of the Society of 
Anti-Semitic Youth, and of the Society called ih.Q Jeunesse 
Royaliste. 

It may be well here to remark that anti-Semitic feeling 
in France has little (we may say nothing) to do with any 
religious feeling. It is directed against the Jews as capi- 
talists, and all the charities of the Rothschilds and other 
prominent persons of their race, especially during the 
Siege of Paris, count for nothing in the struggle between 
capital and labor. As Louis Blanc wrote against the 
bourgeoisie, so politicians of his stamp write against the 
Jews. 

The house of M. Buffet, the representative in Paris of 
the Duke of Orleans, had been searched, and papers found, 
some of which, though foolish in themselves, demonstrated 
that in the winter of 1898-99 an Orleanist conspiracy was 
being prepared in Paris. Documents were also found 
which proved that some very illustrious French General 
had been approached with the most brilliant offers, if he 
would undertake to play the part of General Monk, and 
that he had indignantly refused to turn traitor to the 
Republic. This greatly embarrassed the plans of the con- 
spirators ; they had counted, as a sure card, on the assis- 
tance of this General. 

■ D^roulede during his trial never ceased to proclaim him- 



PRESIDENT £M!LE LOUBET 105 

self a Democrat (which in France means a Jacobin). But 
evidence was found that he had spent Orleanist money in 
getting up emeutes and rousing the mob. 

" We do not believe," said the London " Daily News," •' M. 
Ddroulede's disclaimers of alliance with the Orleanists, or his 
asseverations that he is before all things a Democrat. He did 
not act alone, nor was M. Gu^rin his only confederate. Ar- 
rangements of this kind require money, and there is evidence 
that the money came from Orleanist sources. The Duke of 
Orleans, it will be observed, has quarrelled with his cousin 
Prince Henri over M. Arthur Meyer of the Gaulois. M. Meyer 
is an anti-Semitic politician of Semitic descent, or in the elegant 
language employed by the head of the House of Bourbon, he is 
*an unclean Jew.' Prince Henri of Orleans, after having 
kissed Esterhazy, is naturally not particular in his choice of 
associates, and he thinks that as M. Meyer is on the right side 
he ought to be accepted and encouraged. That is no doubt the 
view that both Princes take of MM. Ddroulede and Guerin." 

After Philippe of Orleans, the Pretender who ranks next 
in order is Prince Victor Napoleon, son of Prince Napoleon 
Bonaparte (cousin of Emperor Napoleon III.) and of 
Princess Clothilde, daughter of Victor Emmanuel ; but he 
had long been considered a person of too much tranquillity 
— some say stolidity — to take any active measures for 
securing an uneasy throne. Besides, he has made a mor- 
ganatic marriage, which the Catholic Church would be un- 
willing to dissolve. 

The hopes of the Bonapartist party in France, or rather 
we may say of the group of Bonapartists, have rested on his 
brother Louis, a Colonel of Artillery in the Russian service, 
to whom it was believed Prince Victor had resigned his 
pretensions to an imperial crown. But, in the first week of 
1899, appeared in a French newspaper what professed to 
be an inspired article, forecasting his designs. '' Indiffer- 
ence and apathy," he said, "have so weakened France, 
that, if necessary, I will not shrink from a coiip deforce," 
and he adds that his brother, who will soon be General 
Bonaparte, will " be found beside him on the day of 
action." 



I06 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

That day of action did not occur in the year 1899, but 
that the idea of it still slumbers in the mind of Prince Victor 
is proved by a letter he wrote to the Mayor of Ajaccio, in 
the last week of the same year, being the centenary of the 
First Napoleon's appointment as First Consul. " By this 
time," says the London " Spectator," " France has grown 
suspicious of Pretenders who covet her ; . . . but in all 
respects Prince Victor has the advantage over his Orleanist 
rival, whose public appearances must be the despair of his 
well-wisljers. The Duke of Orleans has neither reserve nor 
dignity, nor the faculty of intervening to any purpose. 
Prince Victor intervenes less often, and when he does so, 
it is in far better style and language." Speaking of late 
events he said, " The Flag must be above everything, but I 
do not admit that patriotism can be accepted as an excuse 
for committing a forgery." 

His brother Louis, soon to be General Bonaparte, is a 
trained soldier, high in favor at St. Petersburg, and should 
the time come when Frenchmen find themselves willing to 
accept a sovereign from the hand of the Russian Czar, it 
may be fortunate that so unexceptionable a candidate is at 
hand. As for Prince Henri of Orleans, second son of the 
Due de Chartres, and on his mother's side grandson of the 
Prince de Joinville, he is more like a typical Irish adven- 
turer than like a prince of the blood royal. He has 
explored Thibet and Tonquin, and as a French traveller 
has received from a minister of the Republican Gov- 
ernment the Cross of the Legion of Honor. Three years 
ago he went to Abyssinia, partly as a newspaper reporter, 
and partly on a self-imposed secret mission to induce King 
Menelik to put himself in opposition to any plans the Eng- 
lish might form in connection with their successes on the 
Nile or in the Soudan. In this " well laid scheme " for at- 
taining popularity in France, he was defeated by the superior 
diplomacy of the English envoy Mr. Rodd ; but he got into 
a bitter quarrel with a gentleman of his suite with whom 
he had lived on terms of intimacy. He also greatly 
offended the Italians by remarks that he made in his char- 



PRESIDENT jEMILE LOUBET IO/ 

acter of correspondent upon Italian officers at the battle of 
Adowa. For these remarks several Italian officers chal- 
lenged him ; but as there is some etiquette in affairs of 
honor about an officer not of royal descent challenging one 
who has that advantage, the young Duke of Aosta, son of 
the ex-king of Spain, stepped forward and took the matter 
into his own hands. The Princes fought with swords near 
Paris, and Prince Henri received a severe wound. He has 
since made himself conspicuous wherever there was a 
crowd to cheer for Esterhazy, or to hurl insults at the Jews, 
at Picquart, or at Zola. 

D^roulede availed himself of his second trial before the 
French Senate, sitting as a High Court of Justice, to make 
another attack on President Loubet in presence of his 
judges. He denounced their Court as one of " injustice 
and infamy," declared the Senators to be " bandits and 
des miserables,'' and the President of the Republic " un- 
worthy of France." For all this he was judged guilty of 
insulting the Court, and was sentenced to two years impri- 
sonment, which will at least keep him out of mischief till 
the Exposition is over. 

Of the policy of " pin-pricks," of the Fashoda affair, and 
consequent disputes with England, I will treat in another 
chapter. Since Jan. i, 1900, affairs in France have gone 
on more quietly than might have been expected after the 
storms and tempests of the preceding year. But there 
have been strong hands at the helm, and the Ministry, which 
calls itself a cabinet for the defence of the Republic, has 
steered its course carefully for that end. The strongest hand 
has been that of General de Gallifet. He has dared to give 
preferment and promotion to Picquart, Freystatter, and 
other brave French officers who risked their chances in life 
to secure justice for an unfortunate comrade. He took the 
question of promotions in the army, which had been usurped 
by the General Staff, into his own hands ; and in May, 1899, 
he issued an order not likely to be popular in the army, 
forbidding the use of such stimulants as absinthe, vermouth, 
and cognac, among French soldiers. 



I08 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Since the days when I left Paris in 1848, a great change 
has passed over Frenchmen in the matter of intemperance. 
Then, even when the populace was roused into a revolution- 
ary outbreak scarcely a drunken man was to be seen. 
French soldiers and French workmen drank only the wines 
of their country. Since then aperitifs have been introduced, 
pernicious spirits, which have filled prisons, mad-houses, and 
sanitariums with their victims. General de Gallifet was 
resolved not to have the army, which, with all his ability 
and courage, he was trying to reform and re-organize, affected 
by the sale of such liquors in camps or barracks. This order 
was issued early in May. In the last week of that month 
there was a Cabinet crisis. An official in the Intelligence 
Department, which had, however, been taken from the War 
Office and committed to the police, undertook to ascertain 
who had bribed Cernuschi, the Austrian revolutionist and 
adventurer who had appeared on the last day of the 
Dreyfus trial to give entangled hearsay evidence against 
the prisoner. The result of the inquiry was commu- 
nicated to the Nationalists by Major Fritch, who when his 
abstraction of official papers came to the knowledge of the 
War Office, was dismissed from the General Staff. The 
matter was brought before the Chamber. The Premier, in 
his speech, spoke of Fritch as a " felon." For this he was 
accused of impugning " the honor of the army." A storm 
arose in the Chamber, in the midst of which General de 
Gallifet, instead of rising to speak, wrote a short note resign- 
ing his place in the Ministry, and left the Hall. He was 
seventy years of age ; his heart was in bad condition ; his 
physical powers impaired by his wound received in Mexico ; 
and, to use his own words, he " could no longer stand up 
under his heavy duties and his emotions." Only by a strong 
effort of will had he kept himself from fainting in the 
Chamber. 

In vain M. Delcass^, sent to him by M. Waldeck- Rousseau, 
urged him not to remove such a prop from the government. 
He would not revoke his resignation, but designated Gen- 
eral Andr6 (who his detractors say is an associate of General 



PRESIDENT EMILE LOUBET 1 09 

de Gallifet's friend Picquart) to succeed him as War Min- 
ister. General Andre's first acts were interpreted by the 
pubUc as unfavorable to Dreyfus, but he has followed them 
by making a clean sweep of the officers in the General Staff. 
He is a younger man than De Gallifet, and had already 
given evidence of his determination to preserve discipline 
in the army. 

The next week the Senate passed what was called the 
Amnesty Bill, intended to close the Dreyfus affair. Every- 
body implicated in it was amnestied ; no further pro- 
ceedings could be taken against them ; Dreyfus, Mercier, 
Picquart, Esterhazy, Zola, Roget, Du Paty de Clam, and all 
the rest were safe from further trial. A motion was made 
to include D^roulede and his colleagues in this amnesty, 
but it was rejected. The bill is not satisfactory to the friends 
of Captain Dreyfus, who regret that he is barred from appeal- 
ing against the sentence of the court-martial at Rennes, but 
it is probably the best step that could have been taken 
to promote the pacification of France. 

In the elections for a new Chamber, the Government 
secured a large majority in the Provinces ; while the Nation- 
alists went wild with delight over their success in Paris, 
where their most fiery candidates were elected to seats in 
the Municipal Council. Thus it is once more Paris against 
France in the Provinces. To use a favorite French expres- 
sion, when the Exposition is over, " we shall see what we 
shall see." Meanwhile the bourgeoisie by no means wish 
the Red Spectre to frighten away strangers. Says the 
London " Spectator " : 

" It is well to remember that the actions of France in times 
of emotion are governed by her brain, which is liable to peri- 
odic attacks which can hardly be distinguished from accesses 
of lunacy. The disease of France is, however, more like epi- 
lepsy, which produces occasional paralysis, but is found consistent 
with greatness of intellect and a long career." 

There is one change that has come over a part of France 
during the last five years, that is beginning to be perceived 



no LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

and commented on. Alsace and Lorraine have weakened in 
their attachment to France, and are appreciating the eco- 
nomic advantages which they have found under the stable 
government of Germany. Hitherto their interests had 
drawn them one way, their patriotic pride and their affec- 
tions in the other direction. But the events of the last 
eighteen months have greatly changed these feelings. Here 
are parts of a letter written to the London " Times " by 
one who professes to know Lorraine and Alsace thoroughly ; 
he can speak the language of the peasantry, and can hold 
such familiar intercourse with them as is impossible for a 
stranger. 

"In 1890 I found popular feeling in Alsace, more particularly 
among the peasantry, still very French, adverse to and distrust- 
ful of Germany. Last year, to my surprise, I found this state 
of things entirely changed — strikingly reversed in fact, even in 
those that were reckoned ' French ' districts, and among 
French-speaking people, with French traditions and French 
associations. They owned to a feeling of affection for France, 
as they had known it; they were glad to talk of old times ; but 
they ' thanked their stars,' as they said, that they had become 
separated from their old country, and never in the world would 
they want to be re-united to it. Now for this revolution of feel- 
ing, no doubt the general unrest and unsteadiness of French 
politics, the lowering of political fnorale, the loss of head and of 
aim are largely responsible. ' We have a steady government 
now, which knows its own mind, and we have law and order,' — 
that was what I was told. However, unquestionably the Dreyfus 
prosecution stands for a great deal in this general estrange- 
ment of Alsatian sympathies. Alsatians do not understand 
anti-Semitism ; they have always been tolerant to Jews, 
have attracted them and favored them. ... To the Alsatians, 
Dreyfus is the Alsatian, the typical Alsatian whose family they 
know ; a family that in 1870, from what it held to be loyalty and 
patriotism, elected to stay French, and left its native land. Yet 
their Alsatian nationality was used as a convenient pretext for 
making one of its sons a scapegoat under the sway of that 
peculiarly French delusion, nous sommes trahis! Thus the 
' patriotic ' Generals have once and for all estranged Alsatian 
feeling, and cut off from France the sympathies of those who at 
one time were her most devoted sons." 



mvt M 

RUSSIA AND TURKEY 

Chapter I. Alexander III. Nicholas II. 

" II. Railroads and Waterways in Russia. 

" III. The Peace Congress. The Brother of 

THE Czar. Finland. 

" IV. The Sultan and ARiMenia. 

" V. Crete,' and the War in Thessaly. 

" VI. In the Balkans. 



RUSSIA AND TURKEY 

CHAPTER I 

ALEXANDER III. NICHOLAS II 

'T*HE manuscript of my volume on '•' Russia and Turkey 
■*■ in the Nineteenth Century " was nearly completed in 
September, 1893. Alexander III. was then living, and 
with all the resources of his vast empire was conscientiously 
pursuing his policy of bringing all Russians to consider him 
not only their temporal ruler but their spiritual head. 
What Moses and Joshua accomplished for the children of 
Israel, Alexander III. set himself to effect for the people of 
Russia, sincerely considering himself an instrument in the 
hand of God for firmly establishing His True Church — /.<?. 
the Holy Orthodox Greek Church of Russia, among all 
the Russian peoples. 

In pursuance of this plan — his life's ideal — he en- 
deavored throughout his reign to keep all power in his own 
hands, and to exercise absolute control over his ministers. 
It was a heavy task, and it killed the strong man in the 
prime of his manhood. 

Alexander III. was consumed with a desire to fulfil his 
coronation oath and to do what he believed to be the will 
of God ; and while giving him this credit (or rather, I 
should say, offering this excuse for many acts of his govern- 
ment), we may offer the same palliation for the career of 
the Sultan Abdul Hamid. 

" Preserve me, O Lord, from the errors of wise men, yea, 
and of good men "was the prayer of good Archbishop 



114 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Leighton in the days of Charles II. Both Alexander and 
Abdul Hamid were what we call " good men." The 
domestic life of both of them was exemplary, both were 
courteous, both were capable of self-sacrifice, both always 
made a most favorable impression upon those admitted to 
personal intercourse with them. Abdul Hamid considered 
it his duty to God and to man to carry out the fundamental 
principle of the Koran, which is to give to unbelievers their 
choice, between " Islam, tribute, and the sword." But the 
teaching of the Koran includes another maxim, — " Give 
way when confronted by superior force," — therefore Greek 
Christianity in his dominions he could not, after the Russo- 
Turkish war, directly interfere with ; but there remained in 
Asia Minor a floating population of Armenian Christians, 
with no nationality, no territorial boundaries, and no advo- 
cate with armies at his back. They were simply Turkish 
subjects whom a society of revolutionists called Hunt- 
chagists was eager to stir into rebellion, and whose rela- 
tions with the Porte were the cause of perpetual, feeble, 
worrying remonstrances from the Christian Powers. If the 
old formula " Islam, tribute, or the sword " could be put 
in force against them, how much easier would be the 
course of the Turkish government ! The Christian Powers 
were perpetually insisting on reforms which would subvert 
the very first principle of Islamism, that is, they were bent 
on securing equality for Christians in the Turkish Empire, 
and on putting the Infidel on a par with the dominant 
Mohammedan race ; it was even insisted thai opprobrious 
names should not be addressed to Christians. If ambas- 
sadors were to be listened to, and treaties were to be 
maintained, Mohammedan boys could not shout " Dog of a 
Christian ! " in the streets without fear of the police and 
the Cadi. 

Tribute to the Porte (the capitation tax laid upon 
Christians for exemption from military service and the 
mere right to live) was very hard to raise in remote Arme- 
nian villages ; the resources of the inhabitants had been 
exhausted by the blackmail paid to their Aghas, i. e. chiefs 



ALEXANDER III II5 

of the Kurds, by whom they were surrounded. There legally 
remained thenceforth for Armenians in Turkey only the 
choice between Islam and the sword ; while in Russia, 
Alexander III., adopting the same policy, offered his un- 
orthodox subjects (Jews, Lutherans, Stundists, Mennonites, 
and other non-conformists) submission to the National 
form of the Greek Church, or exile, or persecution. 

"In all this," says a Russian writer, "he was well- 
meaning and conscientious, but like the apothecary who 
should dispense strychnine for sulphonal, his conscientious- 
ness could not avail to save his victims ; and the most kind- 
hearted of men became a cruel persecutor." Among the 
numerous measures decreed against the un-Orthodox in 
Russia was one that entailed especial hardship on a large 
number of respectable families ; viz., the decision not to 
permit the employment of any but Orthodox Russians in 
positions of responsibility, especially upon railroads, where 
by superior education and intelligence a large proportion 
of Poles, and Germans from the Baltic Provinces, had been 
employed as inspectors, station-masters, conductors, engine- 
drivers, etc. 

As the Government controlled the railroads, it drew the 
lines closer and closer, until these semi-aliens were all dis- 
missed to make room for Orthodox Russians. One of the 
last roads on which this change was made, was that Smo- 
lensk Railway where a plot was discovered in 1894 to blow 
up the Czar's train. 

" The discovery of this mine was a mere accident, but the 
inquiries that followed laid bare a deep-laid, carefully elabo- 
rated plot, in which the numerous conspirators were, without 
exception, Orthodox Russian officials, — the very men who 
owed their posts to the removal of the mistrusted Poles and 
Germans. The evidence of this fact was too clear to admit of 
doubt, and in one moment all the Czar's fondest illusions were 
rudely dispelled. The utter futility of the entire policy of his 
reign became manifest. . . . This was his death blow. Sur- 
geons who made a post-mortem examination of his remains in- 
formed the world of the immediate ph3'sical causes of his death ; 
but it was not within their province to speak of its moral causes. 



Il6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

To those, however, who had any opportunity of observing the 
Czar during the last months of his life, it was evident that he 
was suffering acutely from some heavy moral affliction. There 
can be no hesitation in attributing this moral suffering to the 
very painful disillusionment which ensued as the result of the 
discovery of the Smolensk plot, and of the circumstances con- 
nected with that nearly successful conspiracy." ^ 

It must have been a pathetic sight when the honest man 
lay on his death-bed, pondering over the events of his life, 
and on the utter failure of deeds that he had done with the 
best intentions, but which he now suspected might, in the 
sight of Providence, have been wrong. 

General Miliutin, his first Minister of War (who had been 
dismissed very early in his reign, together with the other 
liberal members of Loris Melikoffs Cabinet), he sent for, 
and conversed long and earnestly with him. It seems prob- 
able that had he lived there might have been a change of 
policy, both in internal administration and in foreign af- 
fairs. He also held long and intimate conversations with 
his son Nicholas, whom it was his most earnest wish to see 
married and settled before he died. 

No Czar of Russia is completely Emperor until he has 
been crowned, and at his coronation he receives consecra- 
tion as head " pope," /. e. priest, of the Orthodox Holy 
Russian Church ; and, according to Russian ecclesiastical 
law, every " pope " must be a married man. 

The Czarevich, before his Eastern tour, when his father 
earnestly urged him to marry at once, was extremely op- 
posed to the idea. His heart was sore at the time. He 
had been forced to part from his first love, and had suffered 
acutely from the renunciation. Soon after his return, at 
the marriage of his cousin Marie, at Gotha, to the heir 
presumptive of the King of Roumania, he met the Princess 
Alix of Hesse Darmstadt, his second cousin. She was the 
niece by marriage of his aunt, the Grand Duchess Marie, 
wife to the English Duke of Saxe Coburg Gotha. This 
lady was an experienced matchmaker, and finding some 

^ " Blackwood's Magazine." 



ALEXANDER III WJ 

impression had been made on the young Czarevich by the 
beauty, dignity, good sense, and intelligence of the Princess 
Alix, she did her best to throw the cousins together. 

Alexander III., at the beginning of his illness, finding 
that some impression had been made upon his son by the 
charms and the behavior of this fair young princess, and 
that he was not inclined to choose for his wife the Princess 
Elena of Montenegro, who, being of the Orthodox faith, 
was by many considered to be the most suitable candidate 
for the position of Czarina, urged him to go to Darmstadt, 
and see the Princess Alix in her own home. 

" It was probably with no light heart that the Russian heir 
apparent went to Darmstadt to seek the hand of the Princess 
Alix, but the personal charms of the princess, her dignified con- 
duct, and the firmness with which she showed her determina- 
tion to consult her conscience only, in the matter of the changes 
she could make in the form of her religion, are believed to have 
produced a powerful impression on the mind of her suitor, and 
to have rendered him really solicitous for the arrangement of 
the marriage. The betrothal took place at Darmstadt, and it 
was understood to be conditional on the final acceptance by the 
Princess Alix of the Orthodox faith. The next phase in the 
marriage arrangements was the summoning of the princess to 
the bedside of the dying Alexander. It must have been from 
every point of view a most trying situation for the bride elect, 
who, anxious to fulfil the wishes of the relations to whom she 
owed most, and moved by every feeling of sympathy to satisfy 
the desires of the dying Czar, was nevertheless dubious as to the 
possibility of accepting some of the points demanded in connec- 
tion with the change in the form of her religion. Rarely has a 
conscientious mind been subjected to so cruel an ordeal. But 
the princess, through it all, won the admiration of those around 
her by her right-minded firmness, which never passed the limits 
of conscientious duty, and which was throughout accompanied 
by such evidence of a loving sympathetic nature as smoothed 
many difficulties and soothed many sorrows." ^ 

Alexander III., with his heart more at peace, as he con- 
templated the prospect before his son of a domestic life as 
happy as his own, whatever might be the burdens and per- 

1 "Blackwood's Magazine." 



Il8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

plexities to which he must succeed as Emperor, died 
peacefully at Livadia, whither he had been removed, be- 
cause at some seasons the Eastern coast of the Crimea is 
highly esteemed by Russians as a resort for invalids. 

The death of his father, and a sense of the responsibili- 
ties that weighed on him, seem to have produced at once 
a profound change in the young Czar. Up to that time he 
had been jovial and light-hearted ; those around him now 
found him serious, reticent, and reserved. 

Nicholas Alexandrovitch, who became Emperor of all the 
Russias, and of many countries besides, on Nov. i, 1895, 
was twenty-six years old. His constitution was not very 
strong ; he had not the robust frame of his father ; but his 
character was such as to command respect, and his dis- 
position was lovable. He had been brought up in the 
domestic circle at Gatchina, which closely united all the 
members of the Imperial family. "The Imperial family 
there lived more the life of a wealthy bourgeois than that of 
a rich nobleman." Alexander enforced for his boys a 
system of " hardening " which was too severe for children 
who had inherited the too delicate organization of their 
mother. Etiquette in Russia allows little to be published 
concerning the private life of its grand dukes or great 
nobles. We know, therefore, few particulars concerning the 
early years of the Emperor Nicholas. He had an English 
governess to whom he was much attached, and she made 
him famlHar with Scott's novels, and with some of Dickens's 
works. He had also, as he grew older, an excellent and 
accomplished English tutor ; but his father's wish was that 
he should, before all things, be educated as a Russian. 
When he was eighteen, General Bogdanovitch became his 
governor and preceptor. The superior knowledge and 
refined manners of this officer were calculated to make him 
very acceptable to his pupil ; but he exercised his authority 
with great strictness, which induced a disposition to escape 
from his control. 

Every year Alexander III. and his wife paid a visit to 
the Czarina's parents at Copenhagen. It was holiday-time 



NICHOLAS II 119 

for the whole family, and greatly looked forward to by the 
boys. 

When at last the Czarevich was permitted to mingle with 
the court circle, he was very desirous of removing an im- 
pression that his health was delicate, and one of the very 
few anecdotes told of his youth is, that at his first court 
ball he waltzed with a lady until she nearly fainted. When he 
handed her to her seat, he said : " Countess, forgive me for 
having so much fatigued you, but I wanted to prove that the 
Crown Prince of Russia has some vitality and strength." 

Panslavism was at that time popular in Russia ; but as it 
was not approved by the Emperor, and was not infrequently 
associated with ideas of conspiracy and nihilism, its ad- 
herents had to keep their views and their proceedings 
secret from the police and the Emperor. 

Panslavism aimed at the federation of all Slavs into one 
great empire ; Alexander III. aimed only at effectually 
Russifying the fourteen peoples, nations, and languages in 
his dominions. 

By some means, leading Panslavists, whose object was not 
suspected, succeeded in placing round the person of the 
young prince men who tried to excite his sympathy for 
Panslavist aims. Before long the pseudo-omniscient re- 
porters of foreign newspapers made known to the outside 
world that a great Nihilist conspiracy had been discovered, 
with which the Czarevich was in sympathy. It was all 
false ; but the report must have been gall and wormwood 
to the Emperor, especially as about that time he received 
news that his son had fallen in love. 

The object of his attachment was a ballet-dancer, a 
Jewess, a daughter of the race hated and persecuted by the 
Emperor. The young girl, it is said, was beautiful, virtuous, 
and intelligent. The Czarevich had been too strictly 
brought up, and was himself too virtuous, to offer her any- 
thing but marriage. He appealed to his father to let him 
do as the Grand Duke Constantine, the brother of Alexan- 
der I., had done when he married Janetta Grudzinska. He 
was wilhng, he said, to renounce his claim to the Imperial 



I20 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

crown, if he might have his father's sanction to his mar- 
riage, without which no " pope " in the Russian church 
could legally marry a member of the Imperial family. His 
father represented to him that such a concession would be 
impossible. He could not resign in favor of his brother 
George, who was consumptive ; he must consent to give up 
his humble love, and marry for state reasons. It only 
remained to tear the lovers apart, and trust to the effect of 
time, distance, reflection, and separation. 

The Czarevich was sent abroad. He was to make a tour 
in the East. An account of his journey was published after- 
wards by Prince Ouchtomsky, who, together with Prince 
George of Greece, accompanied him in his travels. The 
party met with little that differed from the usual experiences 
of globe-trotters, until it reached Japan. Concerning what 
befell them there, I must be permitted to give two extracts, 
one from a letter written by Prince George to his father, the 
King of Greece, the other from a charming book, " Letters 
written from Japan," by Mrs. Hugh Frazer,^ sister of Mr. 
F. Marion Crawford. 

The party had visited Kioto, the old capital of Japan, had 
spent the morning in an excursion to Otzu, had taken lunch- 
eon with the Prefect of the District in that little town, and, 
as ordinary wheel carriages were not possible in that part of 
the country, they started to return to Kioto in jinrikshas, 
through the crowded streets lined with policemen ; for the 
Japanese Emperor had given to the Russian Legation a 
personal guarantee for the young Prince's safety, saying : 
" I take the personal responsibility of the Czarevich's visit. 
His person shall be as sacred as my own. I answer for his 
safety with my own honor." 

Here is the account of what took place on May ii, 1891, 
as Prince George wrote it to his father : — 

"We passed through a narrow street decorated with flao;s, 
and filled with crowds of people on both sides of the thorough- 

1 Mrs. Frazer was my god-daughter. Her mother was my dear and 
intimate friend. 



NICHOLAS II 121 

fare. I was looking toward the left, when I suddenly heard 
something like a shriek in front of me, and saw a policeman 
hitting Nicky a blow on the head with his sword, which he held 
in both hands. Nicky jumped out of the jinriksha, and the 
man ran after him ; Nicky with blood streaming down his face. 
When I saw this, I too jumped out with my stick in my hand, 
and ran after the man, who was about fifteen yards in front of 
me. Nicky ran into a shop, but came out immediately, which 
enabled the man to overtake him; but, I thank God, I was 
there in the same moment, and while the policeman still had his 
sword high in the air, I gave him a blow straight on the head, a 
blow so hard that he has probably never experienced a similar one 
before. He now turned against me, but fainted, and fell to the 
ground ; then two of our jinriksha-pullers appeared on the scene, 
one got hold of his legs, while the other took up the sword 
which he had dropped in falling, and gave him a wound in the 
back of his head. It is God who placed me there at that 
moment, and gave me strength to deal that blow ; for, had I been 
a little later, the policeman had perhaps cut off Nicky's head, 
and had my blow missed the assailant's head, he would have 
cut off mine. The whole thing happened so quickly that the 
others who were behind us had seen nothing of the whole affair. 
Nicky sat down; Dr. Plambach bandaged the wound as well 
as he could; and then, escorted by soldiers who had in the 
meantime been called, we drove him back to the Governor's 
house. A firmer bandage was put on, and we remained in the 
house about an hour and a half. I must say I admired Nicky's 
pluck. He did not faint a single time, nor did he lose his good 
spirits for a moment, and yet he had two large wounds in the 
head above the ear. The one wound was five centimetres long, 
the other six; and both had penetrated to the skull, but luckily 
no further." 



The policeman who committed the outrage, Tsuda Sanzo, 
was an old sergeant major who had been decorated for 
good service, and was much trusted. He belonged to a 
class very bitter against foreigners, especially the Russians, 
whom they accused of having unjustly acquired Saghalien, 
though they had received it by treaty in exchange for the 
Kurile Islands. There had been insanity in the man's 
family, and this, under the stimulus of fanaticism, impelled 
him to the deed. 



122 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

There had been the District Governor and other officials 
in the procession, also the Russian Ambassador and the 
Prince's Governor-General Bariatinsky. These insisted on 
running beside the Prince's jinrilcsha all the way, as he was 
taken back to the Governor's house at Kioto. As soon as 
the affair had taken place, the Ambassador, in wild anxiety, 
rushed to the Prince as he stood in the shop, and threw 
himself at his feet with a cry ; but the Prince raised him 
quietly, saying, " Do not be anxious. It is only blood ; I 
am not really hurt." 

At the Russian embassy at Tokio, where preparations had 
been made for a grand reception for the Czarevich on the 
following day, the first news received by telegraph was, " Two 
deep wounds on head. Recovery impossible." 

Mrs. Frazer, who went at once to the Legation, thus 
describes the scene she found there : — 

" As yet no one knew whether a riot had taken place, whether 
the Ambassador who was with the Prince was hurt; but, to tell 
the truth, I do not believe those two poor loyal women, his wife 
and daughter, could have suffered more anguish of soul even 
had he been killed. I learned for the first time what loyalty 
meant ; with what a passion of devotion the blood of some 
races leaps to the call, mad to be spilt for the sovereign and his 
family. My poor friends were utterly prostrated by the blow, 
which had fallen some two hours before I could reach them. 
They had wept till they could weep no more, and Vera S., a 
most charming and brilliant girl, was raging up and down the 
room, sobbing : ' O ! our Prince ! our Prince ! God have mercy 
on our Prince ! ' I am certain that at that moment both mother 
and daughter would have gone to death joyfully and unhesitat- 
ingly, if, by so doing, they could have assured the Czarevich's 
life. . . . Meanwhile there was one person who could do 
nothing to help the poor young Prince or to punish his assail- 
ant. The valiant, gentle Empress forgot all the repressions of 
her up-bringing, all the superb calm, which, as due to her rank, 
she had shown in every circumstance of her life, and all that 
wretched night she walked up and down her room, weeping her 
heart out in a flood-tide of grief. They told me that all night 
the Empress had but one cry: 'The poor mother,' she wailed, 
' she cannot see her boy ! She will not believe he is safe ! 



NICHOLAS IT 123 

Poor mother! How can I comfort you?' And she sent tele- 
gram after telegram to the Czarina, assuring her of the profound 
heart-broken sympathy with which she, the Empress, regarded 
her trouble, and promising that the Czarevich should be nursed 
and tended as if his mother were with him. . . . He behaved 
all through like a Prince and a gentleman. Not the sljo-htest 
sign of rancor ever appeared in his voice or manner, and when, 
at his parents' command (it is said at his mother's entreaty), he 
gave up the rest of his Japanese tour, and was carried back on 
board his own ship to be nursed, he softened the act by every 
kind word that could possibly be used. Thanking the Emperor 
warmly for all his kindness, and saying how great a deprivation 
it was for him not to visit the imperial family at Tokio, because, 
' for reasons of health, as he was still somewhat weak, it was 
considered better he should return to Russia at once. . . .' 
The public grief was profound and universal. The theatres 
were closed, the shops and markets abandoned. The Emperor 
had pledged his honor for the safety of the Prince; every 
reasonable precaution had been taken, but the insult and out- 
rage that had befallen the Emperor's guest was felt to be a 
national dishonor. . . . Spontaneously the people thought what 
could they do to testify to the wounded Czarevich their sym- 
pathy and sorrow. From all parts of the country came presents, 
until every part of the Czarevich's ship was encumbered with 
gifts. Poor men walked days to bring their little offerings. 
Rich men sent precious heirlooms with messages of love and 
respect." 

The wretched fanatic who dealt the blow is, I believe, still 
living. 

"The Emperor sent word to the judges that he must be ex- 
ecuted at once. The judges replied : 'Your Imperial Majesty 
may remember that you have recently granted a constitution, 
in which it is promised that criminals shall be judged and con- 
demned only according to the laws that have been promulgated; 
in these laws such a case as this was not foreseen, and there- 
fore we can only award to this man the punishment incurred by 
one who assaults and wounds any other person of any class 
whatever. We regret we cannot carry out your Majesty's 
wishes. Tsuda Sanzo will undergo a term of imprisonment.' 
' Tsuda Sanzo shall be executed,' replied the indignant Emperor. 
' Let it be seen to at once.' ' Then,' said the courageous judges, 
•your Imperial Majesty will dispense with our poor services. 



124 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

and find some one to carry out your august commands who has 
not taken the oath to administer the laws according to the con- 
stitution.' The Emperor felt that they were right, and it is said 
that he was pleased with them. Tsuda was condemned to ten 
years' imprisonment, but the Governor of the Province and the 
Chief of Police, who were held responsible for the Prince's 
safety, were dismissed and degraded." 

The ship of war on which the Prince was nursed, landed 
hira a month later at Vladivostok. There he laid the cor- 
ner-stone of the Eastern Branch of the Trans-Siberian 
Railroad. Then he travelled homeward by river steamers 
and other conveyances, through the heart of Siberia, that 
great country of many climes, which had never before been 
visited by any member of the house of Romanoff, and 
where the indifference of the Czars had encouraged the 
neglect of the officials. The Siberians, though in language, 
race, and customs they are identical with European Rus- 
sians, have acquired some slight differences, sufficient to 
have become the base of local pride, and they felt deeply 
this continued neglect by their government. 

"At last a young prince destined to ascend the throne had 
come to visit Siberia, and he brought with him the promise of a 
great railway. The whole country was thrilled by the news, as 
it had been thirty years before, when Muravieff announced the 
first navigation of the Amoor. It is no exaggeration to say that 
never was the advent of a man hailed with such deep universal 
enthusiasm as the arrival of the young Czarevich in Siberia. 
Every town he passed through erected a triumphal arch. Cos- 
sacks crowded on the cliffs of the Amoor, to shout hurra ! as 
his boat passed them. . . . Nicholas II. is the first Czar who 
has had the opportunity of realizing the vastness of his Empire, 
of acquainting himself with its real wants, and of understanding 
the true measure of his influence upon his people." 

No intrusive reporter pushed his way into the impe- 
rial family circle and showed us with what feelings the 
parents welcomed home their son, who had gone through 
so much since they last saw him. The Czarevich began 
thenceforth to take part in official life. He was head of a 
committee appointed to provide relief during a great fam- 



NICHOLAS II 125 

ine, and he took a prominent part in all that concerned 
the great railroads, both those that were being built and 
those that were only projected, throughout Russia ; then 
too he had his private affairs to attend to. I have told 
already how he courted, and in the end won, the Princess 
Alix, the youngest daughter of the beloved and lamented 
Princess Alice of England and of Hesse Darmstadt, who 
died of diphtheria, caught when nursing her children. 
Another daughter. Princess Elizabeth, had married into 
the Russian imperial family. Her husband was the Grand 
Duke Sergius, uncle of Nicholas, and the marriage has not 
been thought to be a happy one. 

The first utterance of the new Czar to his subjects was a 
manifesto issued immediately after his father's death. It 
said : — 

" In this sad, but solemn hour, when we ascend the throne of 
our forefathers, the throne of the Russian Empire, and the 
Czardom of Poland, and Grand Dukedom of Finland, insep- 
arably united therewith, we bear in mind the testament of our 
departed parent, and, penetrated with its counsel, we solemnly 
vow, in the presence of the Almighty, to keep always before us 
as the object of our life the peaceful progress, might, and glory 
of beloved Russia, and the happiness of all our faithful sub- 
jects. May Almighty God, whom it has pleased to call us to 
this great service, help us." 

When news of the accession of Nicholas II. reached the 
Kaiser, he was at Stettin, and spoke thus to the officers of 
his garrison : "Nicholas II. has ascended the throne of his 
forefathers, truly one of the most burdensome inheritances 
upon which a prince can enter. Let us join in the prayer 
that God may grant him strength to discharge the weighty 
duties on which he is entering." 

" • The task of a Russian Emperor,' said Prince Lobanoff 
to M. de Blowitz, ' is a crushing one, far exceeding the 
strength of one man, however great may be his capacity for 
work, or his intelligence. Alexander III., with his loyal devo- 
tion to his duties, wished to accompHsh his task — the whole of 
his task. He sometimes remained at his desk up to two or 



126 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

three o'clock in the morning, and then fell upon his bed utterly 
worn out. He died in the flower of his age, entirely owing, I 
am convinced, to an excess of hard work.' " 

Soon after the late Emperor's funeral, Princess Alix, after 
careful instruction from competent ecclesiastics high in the 
Orthodox Church, joined its communion, and received the 
name of Alexandra Feodorovna. As she could not, ac- 
cording to Russian law, add her foreign father's name to the 
new one she assumed, she, like all other princesses who 
have changed the form of their Christian faith, and adopted 
that of their Russian husbands, was placed under the es- 
pecial protection of Saint Feodor, and assumed his name 
as her patronymic. 

An unostentatious marriage took place soon after. 
Domestic events moved rapidly with the young couple. 
In one year Nicholas buried his father, married his wife, 
ascended his throne, and received into his arms his first- 
born. It was not, as of course all had hoped, a Czarevich 
— a son ; but it was a daughter who received the name 
of Olga. She has since been followed by two sisters. It is 
said that Queen Victoria, who delights in planning mar- 
riages, watching at Balmoral the little Olga as she played 
with her second cousin, Prince Edward, son and heir to the 
Duke of York, expressed a wish that the attraction they 
seemed to have for each other in their babyhood might 
some day end in a love-match. 

It is no secret that Queen Victoria considers the Czar 
Nicholas her favorite grandson since his marriage with the 
child of the daughter so early lost and so dearly loved. 
It is said, too, that the young Czar is strongly attached to the 
venerable lady who has adopted him as her grandson ; and 
that on some occasions he has even said, in opposition to 
his ministers: "Grandmamma must not be annoyed." 

On the birth of his first child, the Emperor proclaimed 
an amnesty — or in some cases the remittance of part of 
a severe sentence. This amnesty was for political and 
religious offenders, as well as for common criminals, all 



\ 



NICHOLAS ir 127 

persons of the first two classes, unless they had committed 
crimes against morality, were freely pardoned. It is said 
that in all 20,000 persons were relieved of ten years of 
their sentences or received pardons. 

Beyond this, the new Czar has been in no hurry to 
make political changes. He has decidedly discouraged all 
aspirations for parliamentary government. He had probably 
pondered on the workings of that system when abruptly 
imposed on peoples too ignorant or too much influenced 
by demagogues to employ it to advantage. He may have 
looked to the disorders in the Reichsrath, where all difficul- 
ties are complicated by a diversity of races ; at Italy, where 
the people of the ancient kingdom of the Two Sicilies sys- 
tematically oppose in Parliament the sober better sense of 
those who come from Lombardy and Tuscany; he may 
even have reflected on the difficulties experienced by 
German statesmen in dealing with the Polish element in 
the Reichstag ; or on the working of the Irish element in 
the British House of Commons. France, of course, may 
have presented him a striking object-lesson. I say nothing 
of the Congress of the United States, where the rule of 
the people through a parliamentary majority has not 
proved the good example to all nations it was expected 
to be by the framers of the constitution. 

The young Czar, however, when addressing delegates 
from Finland, the Baltic Provinces, and Poland, gave them 
this encouragement : " Be assured I will make no differ- 
ence on account of the religion you profess. My subjects 
are all equally dear to me." General Gourko, who had 
governed Poland with a stern hand, was superseded by a 
new Governor-General with instructions to pursue a more 
merciful policy. But the old General, whose services had 
been so great in war twenty years before, received military 
honors and promotion. A good understanding was entered 
into with the Pope, and some of the restrictions on the Jews 
were removed. 

When his child was born, the Czar directed M. Prob^do- 
nostzeff to countermand the policy of religious persecu- 



128 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

tion carried on in the Baltic Provinces. As Procurator 
of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, 
Prob^donostzeff accordingly addressed a document to the 
Minister of the Interior, declaring that the growth of the 
Orthodox Church and the assimilation of the western 
frontier population, having been accomplished in a satis- 
factory manner, extraordinary measures need no longer be 
taken by the authorities to help forward the work, and 
that the Minister of the Interior might, thenceforward, 
refrain from taking any such steps. 

The Coronation of the Czar and Czarina was, by proc- 
lamation, fixed for the 26 th of May. The ceremony, 
glittering, expensive, magnificent as it was, was not mere 
ceremony, but its religious character was deeply felt, not 
only by the chief persons in it, but by the whole Russian 
nation. 

In " Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century," I 
have given a full account of the Coronation of Alexander 
III. I will, therefore, not describe that of his son. That 
picturesque writer, Mr. Richard Harding Davis, who was 
present, speaks thus of the crowd that in thousands and 
tens of thousands flooded the narrow streets of Moscow : 

" There were ambassadors and governors of provinces, and 
all tlieir wonderfully costumed suites ; bare-kneed Highlanders, 
and bare-kneed Servians ; Mongolians in wrappers of fur and 
green brocade with monster muffs for hats; proud little Japanese 
soldiers in smart French uniforms ; Germans with spiked hel- 
mets; English diplomats in tall hats and frock coats, as though 
they were in Piccadilly ; Italian officers with five-pointed stars 
on their collars and green cock's feathers in their patent leather 
sombreros ; Hungarian nobles in fur-trimmed satins, Mahara- 
jahs from the Punjab and Southern India, in tall turbans of 
silk ; and Masters of Ceremonies and dignitaries of the Russian 
court in golden uniforms and cocked hats with ostrich feathers. 
. . . And there were also several hundred crown princes, prin- 
cesses, kings, governors, and aides-de-camp too numerous to 
make any impression on the people of Moscow." 

One of the most brilliant personages in attendance was 
General de Boisdeffre, whom the world now knows too 



NICHOLAS II 129 

well. France, in her enthusiasm for the Russian alliance, 
had voted a miUion francs that her republican representa- 
tive might make up in magnificence what might be lacking 
in other ways. 

"Horses and carriages, gobelin tapestries and magnificent 
liveries were sent from Paris. Almost all the other countries 
were represented by princes of the reigning families ; but 
General de Boisdeffre, conspicuously magnificent, represented 
a gentleman who on occasions of ceremony wore a simple black 
dress-suit, a merchant who had made his own fortune, and was 
elected by votes to be for seven years the chief magistrate of 
his people." 

But for President Faure, there could not have been the 
reverential feeling of the people who welcomed their Czar, 
who to them was the living representative of the Church on 
earth. No frantic Nihilist broke through the crowd, and, 
so far as could be seen, the precautions taken by the police 
were far less en evidetice than they had been years before at 
the coronation of Alexander III. 

In the procession, the crowd's enthusiasm was most 
evoked by the appearance of the Dowager Czarina, the 
mother of the Emperor, whose many deeds of clemency 
and kindness had made the people almost worship her. 
Says Mr. Davis : — 

" The crowning and chrismation of the Czar was, to the rest 
of the world, a beautiful spectacle ; but to the Russian, it was an 
affair of the most tremendous religious significance. How 
serious this point of view was, may be seen in an extract from 
the official explanation of the coronation. 'The Royal power 
in Russia, from the time that she was formed into an empire, 
forms the heart of the nation. All Russia prays for the Czar 
as for her father.' " 

And as the ceremony proceeded, thousands in the streets 
knelt and lifted up their voices in unison with those within 
the walls of the Church of the Assumption. 

The young Emperor himself was simply dressed in the 
uniform of a colonel, with his trousers stuck in his boots, 

9 



130 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

without orders or decorations. The most interesting 
moment to most spectators of the ceremony, was when the 
Czar was invested by his nearest of kin with his royal robes 
and all his various orders. Then came the same thing for 
the Czarina. Of all the women in the chapel, she had 
entered it the most simply clothed, — "and," adds he 
who tells us this, " of all the women there she was the 
most beautiful." With deep emotion she knelt before her 
husband, who, having placed the crown, handed to him by 
the Metropolitan, on his own head, lifted it and let it rest 
a moment on her brow, as she knelt in front of him, with 
her bare arms clasped before her. 

Then all the princes, potentates, and dignitaries present 
advanced across the platform to offer their felicitations. 
All kissed the Czar upon the cheek, and the Czarina on 
the hand. The Duke of Connaught, England's representa- 
tive, being her uncle, was the only man who ventured to 
kiss her cheek. 

When this was over, the still more solemn ceremony of 
the chrismation (or the anointing with consecrated oil) was 
reached, which made the Czar a priest and head of the 
Church in Russia ; for this he passed from sight through 
a jewelled door. But before he entered it, the bells and 
cannon ceased, and there was profound stillness, as the 
young ruler knelt, " and in a clear, earnest voice," says the 
Bishop of Peterborough, who was present, " prayed thus for 
himself: 

" Lord God of our fathers and King of Kings, who hast 
created all things by Thy word, and by Thy wisdom hast made 
man that he should walk uprightly and rule rightly over Thy 
world, Thou hast chosen me as Czar and judge over Thy 
people. I acknowledge Thy unsearchable purpose toward me, 
and bow in thankfulness before Thy Majesty. Do Thou, my 
Lord and Governor, fit me for the work to which Thou hast 
sent me. Teach me, and guide me in this great service. May 
there be with Thee the wisdom that belongs to Thy Throne, 
send it from Thy holy Heaven that I may know what is well- 
pleasing in Thy sight, and what is right according to Thy com- 
mandments. May my heart be in Thy hand to accomplish all 



NICHOLAS II 131 

that is to the profit of Thy people committed to my charge, and 
is to Thy glory, that so in the day of Thy Judgment I may 
give Thee an account of my stewardship without blame, through 
the grace and mercy of Thy Son who was once crucified for us; 
to Whom be all honor and glory with Thee and the Holy Ghost, 
the Giver of Life, for ever and ever." 

The Czar was deeply affected, when he came forth again 
after the anointing ; tears were streaming down his cheeks 
and beard. He bent and kissed the Empress, " like a man 
in a dream," says Mr. Davis, " as though during the brief 
space in which he had stood in the Holy of Holies, he had 
been face to face with the mysteries of another world." 

Alas ! after this day of many emotions came a sudden 
sorrow. The Czar and Czarina, anxious to testify their 
interest in their peasant people, had arranged that on an 
open space, usually intended for reviews, booths should be 
erected from which gifts should be distributed to 500,000 
people. To each one was to be given a little basket contain- 
ing a loaf of bread, a meat pie, a sweet pie, a bag of candies, 
and a brown mug, with the arms of the Emperor upon it. 
Unhappily, in the surging of the vast crowd, the barriers, 
which might have kept some order, were broken down. 
Those who were to distribute the gifts, bewildered and 
alarmed, flung them among the crowd to be scrambled 
for. Hundreds were trampled to death ; thousands were 
wounded. 

This was so sad a close to ceremonies that in all else had 
been so fortunate and so impressive, that those who have 
written an account of the Coronation have not liked to add 
this tragic incident as a postscript to their relation. 

The Coronation is said to have cost twenty millions of 
dollars ; nor was it money misspent, considering the effect it 
must have produced on foreign guests, and representatives 
from far and near of a hundred millions of Russian people. 

In August, 1896, the Czar and Czarina started on a for- 
eign tour. They visited their relations at Darmstadt, and 
they passed a few days with Queen Victoria, but far their 
most important visit was to France. The French people 



132 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

went wild with excitement over the honor done them. The 
details of this visit I have told when I related events in the 
Presidency of M. Faure. It was followed by M. Faure's 
return visit, when the magic word " alliance " was officially 
pronounced. 

Not long after, some alarm was created in Europe con- 
cerning the Czar's health. He had overworked himself. 

" To fulfil all the duties of his station seems pract,ically im- 
possible to a conscientious man, save at the cost of premature 
physical exhaustion. This is the price his father paid. It is 
impossible for any man, however gifted with the power and the 
will to work, to centre in himself the entire government of such 
a country as Russia." 

More and more, it seems as if the Czar had found it 
necessary to share his responsibilities with others. Auto- 
crat as he may nominally be, his power and his will are 
often thwarted by old national traditions, by his ministers, 
who set their political experience against his views, and by 
public opinion, — more correctly public prejudice, — kept 
alive by journalism. Russians are not likely soon to forget 
the harm that England wrought them by her war in the 
Crimea ; still less that she and Germany robbed them, by 
the Treaty of Berlin, of all, or nearly all, that their valor, 
blood, and treasure had gained for them in the Turkish war 
of 1877-78. England loves " fair play." I do not see how 
she can look back with complacency on the treaty of Berlin ; 
and I think it is now acknowledged that if she did wrong, 
she has since reaped some bitter fruit from Lord Beacons- 
field's brag bit of statesmanship and diplomacy. 



CHAPTER II 

JlAlLROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 

nPHE effect of the homeward journey made by the 
-■- Czarevich across Siberia was to interest him greatly 
in the Trans-Siberian Railroad, and may be said to have 
influenced the policy which has thus far marked his reign 
— a policy of expansion by quiet progress, rather than by 
slaughter. The possession of Constantinople and suprem- 
acy in the Mediterranean seems of far less importance to 
him than to his predecessors. The object of his govern- 
ment seems now to be to obtain naval stations, ports, and 
open water on the Pacific Ocean, the Arctic Ocean, and the 
Persian Gulf, with railroad and river communication leading 
to all of them. This, by developing the resources and com- 
merce of the country, will compensate his people for their 
disappointment concerning the long delay in their posses- 
sion of Constantinople, a question that we may hope will 
be postponed, though as long as it is left unsettled it may 
stick like a thorn in the side of European diplomacy. 

The Trans-Siberian Railroad, when completed, will be the 
longest railway upon earth. ^ It has a five-foot gauge, like 

1 Will my readers forgive me for a personal remim'scence in this 
connection ? I was just entering my teens when my father took 
me (then in London) to see the wonderful sight of a railroad train 
passing under a bridge near Regent's Park. A few years later, some 
time in the early forties, Mr. Bayard of Delaware came to Lon- 
don on a mission to interest capitalists in a scheme to carry a rail- 
road across the American Continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
Knowing that my father was well acquainted with the managing part- 
ner in Coutts's Banking House, he confided to him his papers and 
asked him to draw the attention of the firm to the project. When 
my mother learned this, she remonstrated. " Indeed, Ralph, if I were 
you, I would not speak to Mr. Majoribanks on such a subject," she 



134 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

all other railways in Russia. This gives breadth to the 
cars, and height, and ventilation. The comfort and even 
luxury of Russian first-class carriages amazes the traveller 
who visits the country for the first time. The bridges on 
the Trans-Siberian Railway are very many, for Siberia is 
the land of rivers and waterways. One bridge over the 
river Irtish is four miles long. It is built of iron, with 
piers of great strength, designed especially to resist ice- 
pressure. 

The Trans-Siberian Railroad, like almost all other rail- 
roads in Russia, is constructed and worked by the Govern- 
ment, which, as it has neither bondholders nor stockholders 
whose interests it must consult, is determined to spare no 
expense to make this great enterprise effective, for military, 
commercial, and emigration purposes. Already the road is 
creating a new Siberia, The Siberia of our school-days 
(at least of mine) was a barren waste, dreary, ice-bound, 
and remote from civilization, inhabited by a few savage 
tribes of Esquimaux, by officials made cruel by their per- 
sonal banishment into such surroundings, and by miserable 
political exiles, too far separated from civilization to be able 
to form any reasonable plans for escape. 

In " Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century," ^ 
I have given some account of how the beauty of the Sibe- 
rian steppes surprised and delighted Mr. Kennan, when he 
crossed the Ural Mountains ; here are the impressions of a 
later traveller : — 

" I had heard much of the beauty of the steppes in early 
summer, but I found them more wonderful than I can ever de- 
scribe. Only a few days after the snow had melted, the flowers 
arrived in astonishing profusion. Lilies came first, small 
flowers of intense crimson stretching like pools of blood as far 
as the eye could see; to these succeeded a yellow flower also a 

said. " He will think you the dupe of one of those wild-cat schemes 
for raising money that we read of in the Western States." " Well, 
my dear, I think so myself," he answered. " I will give the papers 
back to Mr. Bayard, and tell him that the thing he is here to advocate 
is too wild to be feasible." — E. W. L. 
1 Cf. Chapter xiii. p. 360. 



RAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IiV RUSSIA 1 35 

bulb (a tulip, I think). At midsummer the forget-me-not turns 
the steppes vivid blue, challenging the azure of the skies. In 
August come the berries, principally raspberries and inorushka, 
which last resembles a little yellow mulberry, but grows upon a 
trailing vine. Bears are gluttonously fond of raspberries and 
viorushka.'''' 

But for some months in every year these beautiful steppes 
have to endure an Arctic winter. Vladivostok, for instance, 
which is in the same latitude as Nice, is ice-bound, and has 
to suffer life for weeks at a time with the thermometer 
steadily some degrees below zero. 

Genghiz Khan, in the Middle Ages, had, like the present 
Czar of Russia, an empire that was both European and 
Asiatic, but his Asiatic Empire was in Cetitral Asia, 
acquired swiftly, and by the sword. 

In his time, and long after it, traffic from China and the 
East to Europe, was regularly carried on through Central 
Asia. When the Mongol Empire lost its sway, the country 
became disorganized ; petty chieftains, at feud among 
themselves, made the roads too dangerous for caravans 
or travellers. Now, after six centuries, highroads for trade 
are again opened, and the products of the East flow into 
Europe by means of the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Caspian 
Railroads. 

Siberia was first made known, as it were, to Russia by 
the energy and enterprise of a peasant known in history 
by the name of Yermak. This man had begun life as 
a laborer and boatman on the Volga ; then he became a 
river-pirate and an outlaw. Forced to flee from justice, 
he did so with a band of fellow-rufifians who looked upon 
him as their leader, and to whom he gave the name of 
Cossacks. They took refuge with a Russian nobleman 
living on the frontier not far from the Ural Mountains, 
who was not at that time on good terms with the Czar of 
Muscovy. This personage, wishing to get rid of Yermak 
and his Cossacks, suggested that they should follow the 
example of certain merchants from Nijni-Novgorod, who 
had at one time pushed far into the northeast, where 



136 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

they did profitable trading with the natives for rich furs. 
This advice the Cossacks and their leader followed. After 
a while it seemed to Yermak desirable to make his peace 
with the Czar, who was at that time Ivan the Terrible. 
He sent an embassy to Moscow, richly clad in sables, 
bearing a tribute of priceless furs to Ivan, whose country 
at that time (1581) was hardly known in Europe even by 
name. Ivan was propitiated ; he pardoned the ex-pirate, 
admitted him to favor, and from time to time sent him 
scanty reinforcements. Yermak then pushed farther and 
farther into the newly discovered country, bearing generally 
toward the northeast, where he could best hope to obtain 
furs. He fought various tribes of Tartars, occupied their 
camps, and took their cities ; but his chief adversary was 
an old blind chief, a noted warrior, whom he drove from 
Siber, the capital of his dominions, and utterly despoiled. 

At last while Yermak was making a reconnaissance with 
a few followers, he was overtaken by darkness and a 
thunderstorm. Together with his men, he lay down in 
a wood near a river bank, and all fell asleep while waiting 
for the dawn. The enemy crept in among them, and all 
were killed except Yermak. He managed to gain the river 
where he knew a boat was fastened, but in attempting to 
reach out for it he fell into the stream, and sank, being 
overweighted with some magnificent inlaid armor. 

Subsequently, this armor was recovered, and it is now 
preserved in a Russian museum, as has been recently said. 

"When we remember that Siberia is a huge region, whose 
geographical features make it the natural continuation of 
European Russia, and that it was inhabited only by a sparse 
population of barbaric tribes without strength or cohesion, we 
can see that from the day the Cossacks crossed the Urals (a 
barrier less formidable than the Alleghanies) Russian expan- 
sion to the Pacific was as obvious and inevitable as was our 
own from an opposite direction. The only real difficulties to 
be encountered were those of climate, wilderness, and huge dis- 
tances. In overcoming these, the Russian pioneers showed a 
splendid courage and endurance that compare well with the 
history of exploration anywhere. . . . Beginning with the story 



RAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 1 37 

of the famous expedition of Yermak in 1581, the destruction of 
the Tartar kingdom of Siber, and the foundation of Tobolsk, we 
have a story of rapid advance. In little over half a century 
the whole continent was traversed and the Pacific reached ; 
twelve years later, Behring's Sea was discovered by Deschnew ; 
in 1651 Irkutsk was founded; in 1697 Kamtchatka was con- 
quered by Atlassoff with some seventy Cossacks; then fol- 
lowed the occupation of Alaska, with an attempt, in 1807, to 
found a settlement at the north of the Columbia River ; and in 
181 2 we find a colony of Russian trappers not far from the 
future site of San Francisco." 

This is about the sum of the very scanty knowledge the 
civilized world had of Siberia, unless it read harrowing tales 
of the sufferings of political exiles banished there, until the 
second decade of the nineteenth century, when Muravieff, 
in the reign of Alexander L, conceived the idea of mak- 
ing the great river Amoor, which empties into the Pacific, 
one of Russia's waterways to the sea. He met with much 
opposition from the Czar's great Minister Nesselrode, who 
was apprehensive that he might involve his country in 
a war with distant China ; but he persevered. He had a 
band of enterprising assistants ; and, little by little, in spite 
of obstacles, physical and political, his object was attained. 
The Amoor became the dividing line between Siberia and 
China. This great river, flowing east, then southeast, forms 
the north and northeast boundaries of the Chinese province 
of Manchuria, the home of the reigning Tartar dynasty in 
China. It then turns to the northeast, and flows through 
the province of Amoor, or Russian Manchuria, into the Gulf 
of Tartary or Saghalien. Its principal affluent, the Argun, 
separates Chinese Manchuria from the Russian province of 
Transbaikalia. Russia, having acquired a strip of coast 
line east of Manchuria, built the seaport of Vladivostok. 
The first plan of the Trans-Siberian Railroad was to make 
Vladivostok its eastern terminus, and at that spot the 
Czarevich inaugurated the great railway in 1891. But sub- 
sequently, when, in 1898, Russia leased Port Arthur, at the 
south end of the Liao-tung Peninsula, it became evident 
that the harbor at that place would be a far better terminus 



138 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

for the great railroad than the more northern naval station 
of Vladivostok. 

China, in recompense for the intervention of Russia in 
her war with Japan, permitted the Trans-Siberian Railroad 
to bring its hne through her province of Manchuria. 

Manchuria is a wonderfully fertile country, abounding 
in mines, and inhabited by an industrious agricultural pop- 
ulation. From Manchuria proceeded wave after wave of 
those conquering Tartars who, in the seventeenth century, 
after the destruction of the Mogul Empire, gained com- 
plete control in China, at first over the hill-men, and then 
over those on the settled plains, ending by establishing 
their authority over the whole Empire, and putting the 
present Manchu dynasty upon the throne. 

In 1846, the first Russian steamer entered the mouth of 
the Amoor. A steamer had already, in 1843, navigated the 
Obi, though in winter it could not reach the Arctic Ocean ; 
in 1863, the Yenisei was navigated. 

The world does not realize the amount of Russian river- 
navigation. Russia pays far more attention to her rivers 
than we do to ours in the United States. By last accounts, 
the tonnage of Russian river-steamers and other river-craft 
was one-third more than that of all the rest of the world. 

Siberians have always maintained that in the summer 
months their Arctic Seas were navigable. Sidoroff", the 
naval coadjutor of Muravieff, became acquainted with Nor- 
denskjold, and inspired him with the idea that communi- 
cation with the plains of Siberia by means of the Arctic 
Ocean and the rivers would open a great field for com- 
mercial enterprise. In 1878, Nordenskjold started in the 
" Vega," which had almost reached Behring's Straits when 
stopped by ice. This would not have happened had not 
the " Vega " lingered on the way to make explorations. 

During the Crimean War in 1856, English and French 
warships attacked the Forts of Vladivostok, but met with 
loss and disappointment. 

It was a great event for Siberia when the Czarevich, after 
inaugurating the Siberian Railroad at Vladivostok, started 



RAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 1 39 

on his homeward journey across the country, the door of 
which Yermak and his Cossacks had thrown open in the 
days of Ivan the Terrible. The future will probably show 
that this journey was one of the most auspicious events in 
modern history. The Siberians thoroughly recognized its 
probable consequences. 

The check received by Russia at the outcome of the 
Crimean War caused her, after the death of Nicholas I., 
to turn her attention to the needs and capabilities of a 
territory far larger than the United States : — to the cul- 
tivation of its lands, exposed to a rigorous climate in the 
winter months ; to its rich mines, including those of the 
precious metals ; and, above all, to the utilization of modern 
means of transport to carry its productions to an unfrozen sea. 

The Trans-Siberian Railroad is not yet in full operation in 
Western Siberia. It is stopped at Irkutsk by the difficulty 
of crossing Lake Baikal, or of getting round it. Even to 
Irkutsk, passenger trains at present run irregularly, appa- 
rently on no time-table, and with intervals sometimes of 
more than a week. But construction trains are constantly 
moving, and work is being carried on as rapidly as possible. 

Safety is especially aimed at in the management of a 
Russian railway. 

" Each train and the track are protected by a perfect army of 
guards. The road is divided into sections of a verst each, a 
verst being about two-thirds of a mile. Every section is 
marked by a neat cottage, the home of the guard and his 
family. Night and day the guard, or one of his household, must 
patrol the section. A train is never out of sight of these guards." 

All this applies to the railroad in Western Siberia, as 
far (or nearly as far) as Irkutsk, near Lake Baikal. Be- 
yond that the line is still under construction, and the 
difficulties of the road north to Vladivostok, or south 
through Manchuria to Port Arthur, are most appalling, 
especially to Russian engineers, who object to tunnelling. 
It may be many years before fast trains can be run all along 
this line ; but then the dream of the constructors may be 



140 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

realized of fifteen days from Vladivostok to Moscow, seven- 
teen to London, and twenty-two from Vladivostok to New 
York. It is estimated that the total cost of the Trans- 
Siberian Railroad will be about three hundred million 
roubles ($180,000,000). The estimated annual revenue 
from Siberia is six million roubles ; the annual expense of 
the country to the government is twenty million roubles. 
The young Czar has not hesitated to make sacrifices on 
behalf of the vast portion of his empire which so early 
interested him. 

From Vladivostok westward, four hundred and eighty-six 
miles only is finished, and the far eastern portion of the 
line has, in addition to engineering difficulties, been 
greatly hampered by the scarcity of labor.^ 

" In 1893 the Government decided to import a number of con- 
victs from Saghalien, and set them to work. A gang of three 
thousand were, therefore, placed under charge of a small number 
of Cossacks in barracks especially built for them, on the out- 
skirts of Vladivostok. The scheme at first seemed to work 
well, for the men were well paid, and enjoyed almost complete 
liberty. Six months, however, had hardly elapsed when crime 
became so frequent in Vladivostok that it was unsafe to venture 
into the streets at night, and the inhabitants began to remon- 
strate against the presence among them of cut-throats and 
thieves. After the robbery and murder of a young French 
naval officer, in broad daylight, in one of the principal streets 
of the town, an indignation meeting was held, and the convicts 
were sent back to Saghalien. Since then the work has been 
carried on entirely by soldiers, Koreans, and Chinese." 

In " Russia and Turkey " I pointed out that the old 
popular idea that all convicts in Siberia are political exiles, 

1 Though the work on this railroad is not nearly finished, pas- 
sengers may now travel by it from the west of Europe to the east of 
Asia. "In 1899 the Trans-Siberian trunk from the Lake Baikal to 
Sryetensk (693 miles) opened on December 28, thus completing, 
for the present, the great enterprise begun in 1S91, and establishing 
uninterrupted steam communication between Western Europe, St. 
Petersburg, and the extreme eastern limits of the Russian Empire on 
the Pacific coast, the trains being transported across Lake Baikal on 
an ice-breaking ferry boat." — "The Statesman's Year-Book," 1900. 



kAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 141 

\*as a great mistake, and since the accession of the new 
sovereign (and indeed in the latter years of his predecessor), 
great changes have been made in the convict system, 
Especially in the matter of transportation. Some convicts 
are now sent on prison ships from Odessa, to which place 
they are brought by river or by rail, from all parts of 
Russia. Male and female convicts are despatched in dif- 
ferent ships. The voyage is a long one, through the Suez 
Canal and the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. The convicts 
are landed at Vladivostok, and are thence transported to 
SaghaUen, — the long island north of Japan, which is now 
a penal settlement. 

Political prisoners were not commonly imprisoned at Sa- 
ghaUen. When accused of crime in connection with con- 
spiracy, they are sent to the silver mines. According to 
Mr. Bookwalter, who visited them at the mines and was 
allowed freely to converse with them, they made little com- 
plaint of their food or of their treatment, but expressed 
-great disgust at having to pass their nights in a sleeping 
ward with all kinds of horrible and ferocious criminals. 
During the present reign, it is forbidden for any official to 
flog or even to strike a female prisoner. Up to that time, 
horrible stories concerning the cruel treatment of ladies had 
been published in European and American papers.^ 

Mr. Harry de Windt and Mr. Bookwalter visited Siberia 
and its prisons in 1896 and 1898. Both have done their 
best " to set down naught in malice," and indeed they saw 
little unnecessary severity shown to political exiles. 

Possibly their view of what they saw may be a trifle 
tinged with rose-color. An anecdote or two culled from 
their pages may give better ideas on the subject than what 
I could report at second hand. 

At Nagasaki, where the " Yaroslav," a Russian prison ship 
(built in Scotland), touched on her way from Odessa to 
Vladivostok, Mr. de Windt was permitted to go on board 
as a passenger. The "Yaroslav" carried eight hundred 

1 A recent decree, put forth since this manuscript was sent to 
press, has abolished exile to Siberia. 



142 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

prisoners, and there had been but one death on the voyage 
from Odessa, though the health of many prisoners, through 
the long voyage in the tropics, had been impaired. 

" On reaching Vladivostok where the prisoners were to be 
landed, the men were drawn up in batches of one hundred, 
and formally handed over to the Governor of the prison. It 
was a strange sight, although, notwithstanding the dramatic 
surroundings, and the incessant clank of chains, one would 
hardly describe it as a sad one. There were some haggard 
faces, of course, chiefly among the young or very aged men; 
but the majority affected, even if they did not feel, a callous 
indifference to their surroundings that surprised me. Some 
even laughed and joked with Ivanoff (the first lieutenant who 
had had especial charge of the human cargo), as he moved in 
and out of the ranks, comparing identification papers, and re- 
storing money that had been left in his charge. All had large 
bundles, and nearly every man a tea-kettle ; while many carried 
boxes of cigarettes and packets of tobacco. ... I had for 
some time been watching the busy scene from the upper deck, 
when a telegram was handed to Ivanoff, which he rapidly read, 
and handed to the prison official at his side. A short consul- 
tation ensued, after which a name was called out, and answered 
to by an old man of venerable appearance, who had, up till now, 
worn a very dejected air, and kept aloof from his companions. 
Amid breathless silence, the message was then read aloud, and 
I was not surprised, at its conclusion, to see the poor old fellow 
fall upon the deck, clasp Ivanoff round the knees, and burst 
into tears ; for the telegram was from St. Petersburg to announce 
that he had been granted a free pardon. It says much for 
human nature that throughout that crowd of villanous faces 
there was scarcely one that did not express satisfaction, and 
even pleasure, at the news, which was received by a ringing 
cheer that no one attempted to suppress, but which even some 
of the guards who were standing by joined in. As the barge 
was slowly moving off, I saw the old fellow, who had flung 
away his bundle and his kettle, standing bare-headed at 
our gangway, with nervous fingers twisting into a dirty paper a 
few kopecks (all his worldly wealth) which he threw down to his 
late comrades, and which was caught by a dozen eager hands. 
' Good-bye, brothers,' he cried, ' this is for good luck ! ' And 
as a response came faintly over the water, ' Good luck to you 
at home,' a flood of tears overcame him, and he was led away, 
sobbing like a child, to pjeasanter quarters by Ivanoff." 



RAILROADS ANt) WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 1 43 

Here is another anecdote taken from the experiences of 
Mr. Bookvvalter, an American : — 

" On my way to Tomsk there were among the passengers on 
the train a man and wife, both of them respectable in appear- 
ance and accomphshed. Ahhough having the Hberty of the 
train, their movements seemed under restraint, and an official 
was always hovering conveniently near. In a few days I 
learned that the man was on his way to Tomsk to serve out a 
ten years' banishment. He was formerly a teller in a large bank 
in St. Petersburg, which failed disastrously, and he had im- 
properly used some of its funds. Having been found guilty, 
after a searching trial lasting over two years, he was banished to 
Siberia for a term of ten years. While he will be allowed his 
liberty in that city, he will not be permitted, during that time, to 
go beyond its precincts. The governor of the province can, at 
his discretion, transport him at any. time to the most remote and 
obscure corner of his government; and he will not be allowed 
to engage in any business whatever. After the completion of 
his term of banishment, he will never be permitted to visit St. 
Petersburg, Moscow, or any other large city, seaport, or frontier 
town of the empire, and his subsequent engagement in business 
will depend wholly upon the decision of the authorities. The 
other officials of this unfortunate bank, some fifteen in number, 
comprising among them many men of great wealth and highest 
social position, were, in virtue of their more important official 
relation to the bank, adjudged more highly culpable. They 
were banished to various points in Siberia for a term of eighteen 
years." 

Pecuniary crime seems to be severely punished in Russia. 
Subsequently Mr. Bookwalter met with the case of a rich 
hotel-keeper, banished for ten years for cheating at a 
gaming-table. 

A convict sentenced for life passes eight years in chains. 
If sentenced for twenty years, four are passed in chains, 
and so on, according to a graduated scale. Misconduct in 
prison, of course, entails additional punishment, and some 
convicts are chained day and night to a wheelbarrow. 

The Czar's project of abandoning the system of exiling 
convicts to Siberia has been accomplished. It may be 
doubted whether confinement in Russian prisons is an ex- 



144 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

change to be desired by prisoners for the comparative free- 
dom, fresh air, and other advantages enjoyed in late years 
by the superior class of Russian criminals, the horrors of 
the journey having been in large part done away. But 
above all things the Czar is desirous to build up a flour- 
ishing Russian dependency in Siberia, and the infusion 
of a large criminal class into its population was a measure 
justly resented by its inhabitants ; as was the case in Aus- 
tralia when the colony began to rise in importance and 
prosperity. 

Besides the Trans-Siberian and the Trans-Caspian Rail- 
roads (of the latter I have told something in " Russia and 
Turkey"), many other railroad lines and branch railroads 
are projected in Russia. One in Southwestern Siberia, of 
more than a thousand miles in length, is to tap a country 
of extent equal to the combined Middle and Western 
States of our own land. That country is east of the Cas- 
pian Sea. Its petroleum, from the oil wells of Baku, is of 
especial commercial value. Even now, in spite of the diffi- 
culties of transportation, involving trans-shipment several 
times, great quantities of grain and other produce besides 
petroleum are forwarded by rivers and canals from this 
remote region of Central Asia to ports on the Black Sea. 

There is a plan to connect the Volga and the Don by a 
deep and broad canal ; the Volga runs into the Caspian, 
the Don into the Sea of Azov, a branch of the Black Sea. 
Numerous steamers ply constantly on all the great rivers 
of Siberia, though when winter sets in they cannot reach 
a river's mouth within the Arctic Circle ; but they keep 
up traffic and intercourse between towns in part of their 
course when the water is unfrozen. 

The Government has a military railroad from the Cas- 
pian to Samarkand on which no one is allowed to travel 
without an especial permit from St. Petersburg. Its 
engineers, generals, and other officials are all soldiers. 

Mr. Bookwalter repeatedly notes how much American 
machinery he observed along his route ; both in Northern 
and Southern Siberia, American productions seemed to be 



RAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 1 45 

sought for. On the train upon the miUtary railroad on 
which he travelled by especial permission of the Govern- 
ment, he found one hundred peasant families, emigrating 
to the extreme eastern part of Turkestan. They travelled 
at the expense of the Government, and on reaching their 
destination, each adult was to receive a grant of land, and 
each family one hundred roubles (about ^60). 

There is now a new city of Merv, no longer the old one 
that poor Captain Burnaby reached on horseback, on his 
adventurous ride, and a railroad runs from it almost to 
Herat. This railroad is a terror to those Englishmen who 
continue to persuade themselves that Russia's objective 
point is India. Herat has been considered by all con- 
querors the entrance gate of that land ; but it is far more 
probable that Russia designs, through the good understand- 
ing she now maintains with Persia, to possess herself of a 
port on the Persian Gulf. 

In 1892, England loaned money tO Persia, taking over, 
in requital, the customs duties received at various ports 
in the Province of Ears upon the Persian Gulf. In 
1899, Persia secured a new loan from the Loan Bank at 
Teheran ; but it is understood that behind this private 
institution stands the Russian Government, as it does be- 
hind the Russo-Chinese Bank at Pekin. Of course this 
new relation between Persia and Russia, together with the 
present restlessness of the Ameer of Afghanistan, who is 
threatening to strike for better wages (having at present a 
subsidy from England of only ^700,000 a year), awakens 
the nervous apprehension of Englishmen regarding the 
designs of Russia. If they could but believe that Russia's 
present policy is one of internal improvement, and such 
expansion as will give her outlets to the open ocean ! Apart 
from political complications the economical development of 
Persia can but be welcomed by the civilized world. It has 
especial importance in view of the great German Bagdad 
Railroad, at present under construction. The twentieth 
century may see Western Asia criss-crossed by steel rails, 
civilization and development following the steel lines. It 



146 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURi^ 

was by post-roads that Darius established his great empire 
in those very lands two thousand five hundred years ago. 

In connection with the plans and policy of Russia and 
her desire to secure outlets to the open seas, I must say a 
few words concerning the great ice-breaking steamship, 
built in February, 1899, which, in all her trials, has proved a 
most wonderful success. With her, officers of the Russian 
navy predict not only ports kept open all the year in the 
Baltic, Arctic Ocean, and White Sea ; but future Arctic and 
Antarctic explorations, and the discovery of the North and 
South Poles. The " Ermak "is as yet the only vessel of 
her class, but other ice-breakers on the same plan are being 
constructed. She has already broken her way through 
two hundred miles of ice in an eternally frozen sea. She 
is built strong enough, it is said, to break through any ice 
in existence, and her construction is so strong that in no 
struggle with the ice is it likely she will ever break amid- 
ships. No ordinary accident could send her to the bottom. 
Her total driving strength is ten thousand horse-power. 

The first idea of her construction was taken from the ice- 
breakers in use on our Great Lakes ; but the idea has been 
expanded and improved upon. She is to carry nothing 
but her crew and passengers. She charges the ice, and 
throws it up on each side of her like billows. 

She was built at Newcastle-on-Tyne in the ship-yards of 
Sir William Armstrong. She was launched in February, 
1899, and received the name of "Ermak" — a variation 
on Yermak, the Cossack adventurer whose history I have 
already told. As soon as she was afloat, she was sent to 
encounter the winter ice in the Gulf of Bothnia, at a sea- 
son when no commander in his senses would have risked 
his vessel there. On this voyage, and subsequently on an 
experimental trip into the Arctic Ocean, she made her way 
through ice that rose eighteen feet above the surface of the 
water, and extended to a depth of nine fathoms beneath it. 

With such vessels to cut a track for exploration, or for 
commerce, what may not be accomplished in the century 
upon the verge of which we stand ? 



RAILROADS AND WATERWAYS IN RUSSIA 147 

" Russia has the longest coast line of any country in the 
world. But the greater part of this coast lies along the Arctic 
Ocean, and there is only one month in the year when ships can 
have a reasonable assurance of reaching the northern ports, a 
number of which are of the first importance. For the other 
eleven-twelfths of the year they are closed by the ice, which 
attains a thickness of from eight to ten feet, and is sometimes 
heaped in hummocks twenty feet in height. Even in the Baltic, 
the part that leads to the commercial gateway of the capital 
is closed for five months of every year by the intense cold. 
The cold converts the surface of the Gulf of Finland, and a 
good portion of the larger sea, into an expanse of solid ice 
that sometimes extends two hundred miles from land. If a 
ship is caught in this, it means either a delay that destroys her 
profits, or, more probably,, her destruction." ^ 

1 "McClure's Magazine," April, 1900. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PEACE CONGRESS. THE BROTHER OF THE CZAR. 
FINLAND 

"\T0 doubt can be thrown on the sincerity of the young 
^ Czar's desire for peace. All who have been in con- 
tact with him are convinced that he feels deeply the 
responsibilities of his position. From his earliest infancy 
his father had impressed on him the horrors of war. 
Alexander III., when he was Czarevich, was placed in 
command of an army corps in the Russo-Turkish war of 
1877. Then he conceived a horror of slaughter, rapine, 
and all the other dreadful things that cannot but accompany 
the march of an army, even when the combatants are 
civilized and Christian men. " How glorious it must be 
to see a victory ! " said a thoughtless society woman to 
the Duke of Wellington. " Ah ! madam," he answered, 
" I know nothing so terrible, except a defeat." 

It was thought when the suggestion for a Congress of 
Peace was put forth by the ruler of Russia, whose military 
ambition was apprehended by all Europe, that Nicholas 
had adroitly taken the wind out of the sails of the 
Kaiser; for it was rumored that that dramatic personage 
had had it in contemplation to proclaim, " Peace on earth, 
goodwill toward men," when he should stand at Jerusalem, 
upon sacred soil, during his projected journey to the Holy 
Land. 

It is by no means possible, however, for a Czar of 
Russia to guide things according to his own will, unless 
that will be in accordance with the policy and traditions of 
his political advisers. Alexander III.'s autocratic pursu- 



THE PEACE CONGRESS 1 49 

ance of a system of persecuting the un-Orthodox among 
his subjects, was backed and encouraged by his Cabinet 
and the Procurator of the Holy Synod ; and in the present 
instance the benevolent peace-making policy of the ruler 
of a vast nation whose designs are mistrusted by all Europe, 
was accepted and promoted by those about him, who were 
thinking, not of the good of mankind, or of Europe, but 
of Russia alone, Russia needs peace, and, if possible, a 
good understanding with the rest of Europe, to carry out 
her policy of internal improvements, and to open pathways 
to unfrozen seas. What may come hereafter, when these 
aspirations shall have been realized? Will Russia be a 
menace to all Europe ? or will she still offer peace to the 
surrounding nations on condition of their letting her alone 
to fulfil her " manifest destiny " ? I detest attempts to 
peer into the future. 

The Peace Congress held at the Hague in the summer of 
1899, when one of the Powers who sent delegates to it was 
at war in the Philippines, another on the verge of war in 
South Africa, did very little to promote its object. It 
passed some resolutions calculated to mitigate the horrors 
of war, especially in connection with the work of the Red 
Cross ; but how little influence this has had on would-be 
combatants, we see by recent events, when the assistants 
for the Chicago Red Cross Ambulance Corps, despatched 
to succor the Boer wounded, had no sooner set foot on the 
Transvaal, than they tore off their red badges and pro- 
claimed themselves Irish patriots who, having secured free 
passage to the seat of war, were anxious not to lose a 
chance of taking part in another battle of Fontenoy. 

Signor di Nigra, an Italian delegate to the Congress, said 
at the time, " There are three saints, Saint Peace, Saint 
Patience, and Saint Charity ; but there is no hope of meet- 
ing the first of these until you have made the acquaintance 
of the two others." 



" The Czar's yearning after disarmament may be used by 
others for a different end," said the London " Spectator," com- 



150 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

meriting on an interview with him, published in a French 
paper, " but so far as the Czar himself is concerned, it is 
absolutely genuine. His position among the sovereigns of 
Europe is precisely that of the Psalmist, ' I labor for peace, 
but when I speak to them thereof, they make them ready for 
battle.' " 

The Czar had his own plan for peace, but it was not, 
I think, presented to the Congress, certainly it was never 
acted upon. 

It was, in brief, to conduct international disputes very 
much as causes of quarrel are settled among gentlemen, 
by seconds who desire to hold back their principals, when 
there is reason to apprehend a duel.^ 

" Men," said the " Spectator," " who conceive themselves 
insulted, do not come to blows at the first sight of one another. 
They appoint seconds, and these seconds meet and go into the 
particulars of the quarrel. If they cannot prevent the duel 
by these means, they sometimes refer the matter to a third 
person. It is only in the last resort that they actually fight. 
This is just what the Czar wishes to see done when a quarrel 
arises between nations." 

The Czar was greatly disappointed when he found that 
the Peace Congress had been treated by the world in 
general with great indifference, that there was no practical 
result from its proceedings, and that it had failed to rouse 
the world's enthusiasm for the cause of peace. 

About this time, too, a domestic sorrow fell on the 
Imperial household. The Czar's next brother, George, 
heir presumptive to the throne, and therefore called the 
Czarevich, had all his life been in bad health. He had 
passed much time at various resorts for invalids, had made 
a voyage round the world, and spent one winter in Algeria. 
At length he went to Abas-Tuman in the Caucasus, a place 

1 My father used to say that seconds ought always to be chosen 
from military or naval men ; because civilians would be more likely 
to dread compromising their principals by suggesting or accepting 
terms of accommodation. He said his long experience had taught 
him that very few duels took place, if the seconds were well chosen. 



THE BROTHER OF THE CZAR 151 

Strongly recommended by his physicians for its salubrious 
air. There he inhabited a house covered with vines, in the 
midst of scenery not only beautiful but magnificent. 

As a boy, he had been accounted the most gentle and 
docile of his family. Although not particularly brilliant, 
he had the art of winning the love of all those around 
him. In his boyhood, he and his brother had once 
planned to take their sister, the Princess Xenia, for a ride, 
but failed to keep their appointment. Their father, find- 
ing his httle daughter in tears, met them, when at length 
they returned, with a rebuke that they never forgot. 
" Other men may break their word," he said ; " but the 
sons of a Russian sovereign never ! " 

The Grand Duke George disliked public notice, and 
never took any part in politics. 

His death was very tragic — very lonely. He had been 
out alone upon the mountains on his bicycle. He fancied 
himself to be gaining health and strength in the pure air, 
but he presumed on his improvement. Suddenly, in a 
mountain pass, he felt very ill, dismounted from his 
machine, and a peasant woman, running up, endeavored to 
assist him. Shortly afterwards, he quietly and calmly died. 

The woman was one of an un-Orthodox sect which had 
been persecuted and prosecuted during the life of the 
Emperor Alexander. The Emperor Nicholas not only re- 
warded her in return for her kind offices to the brother he 
had dearly loved, but, for her sake, stopped all interference 
with the religion of her people. 

A third daughter was born to the Czar and Czarina 
about this time. It must have greatly disappointed them 
that it was not a Czarevich. That title fell, provisionally, 
to the Grand Duke Michael, the third son and youngest 
child of Alexander III. The Czar took those things so 
much to heart that those around him feared that he might 
wish to abdicate, and strong influences were brought to bear 
on him to induce him to retain his place on the throne. 

" Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown," and espe- 
cially uneasy must be the head of a peace-loving Russian 



152 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Emperor; nor could his sorrows have been assuaged by 
what at this time took place with relation to Finland. 

Almost simultaneously with the close of the Peace 
Congress, came a rescript from the young Czar so unlike 
what the Western World had been learning to consider 
both his policy and his character, that those who admired 
him and were disposed to put their trust in him have 
found it hard to understand. 

" We heard thy plea for Peace, and thy praise rang round the world. 
We ^reamed of a Truce of God, and war-stained banners furled. 
And the nations paused, like men who stare at a meteor's flight, 
Beautiful, sudden, rare, across their sullen night. 

" But now, O ruler of men, while round thy council board 
Statesmen of East and West are gathering at thy word, 
Rings in our ears a cry from the folk of a Northern land, 
Stunned by the brutal shock of a pitiless new command." ^ 

The document is apparently an assault on the Finnish 
constitution, which had been guaranteed for more than a 
hundred years by the oaths and promises of successive 
Russian Emperors. The crime (for such it seems) is not 
yet consummated ; other counsels may prevail, and the 
Finnish people may turn again with renewed loyalty and 
affection to their Grand Duke, — the present Czar. 

The Finns were originally an Asiatic tribe of the same 
race, it is said, as the Magyars. After their migration into 
Europe, they were pushed northward, until they reached 
the x^rctic Ocean. Many of the present inhabitants of Fin- 
land are descended from Swedes, who in past ages brought 
into the country Christianity and a higher degree of cul- 
ture. Ever since, in church and state, both languages 
have been upon an equal footing. 

Finland formed part of Sweden, up to 1809, when in 
one of the rectifications of the map of Europe, which suc- 
ceeded the Napoleonic wars, it was given to Russia. Alex- 
ander I. encouraged the Finlanders to continue their national 
life. He made Finland a state separate from Russia ; he 
recognized and re-enacted a constitution that had been 
1 Horace G. Grosser. 



FINLAND 153 

given to the Finns by Sweden in 1772. He became their 
Grand Duke, and promised to maintain, " firmly and un- 
shakably," their laws and privileges. Even so swore 
Nicholas I., Alexander II., and Alexander III. ; though the 
last, with his mania for Russification, and under the tutelage 
of M. Probddonostzeff, head of the synod of the Holy 
Orthodox Russian Church, attempted occasionally small 
encroachments on the liberties and privileges of the Finns. 
Nicholas II., on ascending the Imperial throne, made haste 
to assure his Polish and Finnish subjects that he would 
look on them with kindness and with favor. 

By the constitution of the Grand Duchy of Finland, the 
Finns have their own Diet and an Imperial Senate. The 
Diet makes the laws, which are inoperative until sanctioned 
by the Sovereign ; but in certain cases of emergency the 
Grand Duke, supported by his Senate, can issue what is 
called an " administrative ordinance." If, however, this 
ordinance should involve any change in the- constitution or 
in laws that have been passed by the Diet, it requires a 
meeting of that body before it can become permanently 
effective. 

Under this constitution Finland had lived happily for 
ninety years, during the reigns of four successive Emperors. 
During the Crimean struggle she sent her little army to 
garrison St. Petersburg, while her coasts were ravaged by 
French and English men of war. The only important 
change made in the constitution had been to abrogate a 
provision which obliged all servants of the state to be 
Lutherans. 

One after another the Russian Emperors since Alex- 
ander I. have admitted that no administrative ordinance 
could supersede the legislative authority of the Diet for 
more than a brief period. 

In 1898 two government bills were laid before the Diet. 
One was to make all the Finns (like all the Russians) liable 
to do military service, and the other to regulate the organ- 
ization of the Finnish troops. A fortnight later, as the bills 
had not been dealt with by the Diet, an administrative ordi- 



154 I-'^ST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

nance, drawn up by a commission presided over by one of 
the Emperor's granduncles, and containing, among other 
members, M. Prob^donostzeff, set aside the constitution, 
and enacted new laws, treating the Grand Duchy of Fin- 
land as an integral part of the Russian Empire, and giving 
to the Czar the right to be sole judge as to what laws 
affected the common interests of the Empire. The Finns 
offered to increase their army from five thousand six hun- 
dred to twelve thousand men, to double their period of 
active service, and to sanction the employment of their 
troops outside of the Grand Duchy, when not required for 
defence at home ; but they insisted on their young men 
being kept together in their own regiments,^ and that they 
should not be incorporated in those of Russia, with com- 
rades whose language they could not understand, and 
whose habits and religion would be foreign to them. The 
administrative ordinance also required of conscripts, be- 
fore promotion could be attained, or any favor shown them, 
to present a certificate of their knowledge of the Russian 
language. This condition was far more arbitrary than any 
similar one exacted in the army of Austria-Hungary, which 
is composed of men of various nations and tongues. The 
struggle began about a year ago; Which party will con- 
quer in the end, the Grand Duke or his people ? 

Thus far in vain the Finns have sent delegations to plead 
their cause at St. Petersburg, and have signed petitions. 
It is said that some thousands of Finnish peasants are on 
the point of emigrating to the United States or Canada. 
They are admirable seamen. Our ocean steamers and pas- 
senger ships have long had many Finns among their sailors. 
More than two hundred thousand of these people are 
already in our country. 

It seems probable that the attack on the Constitution of 
Finland was planned by some of the Czar's advisers who 
are opposed to his liberal and kindly tendencies, and pos- 

^ It was so in the days of Gustavus Adolphus, when the finest 
troops in his service were the Finnish regiments. 



FINLAND 155 

sibly, without having thoroughly studied the constitutional 
question, he assented to what seemed to give him more 
imperial power in Finland, in hopes thereby to promote 
one of his cherished projects of internal improvement. 

Plans have been made for a railway to the coast of the 
Arctic Ocean ; and a port is desired for it on the Varanger 
Fiord, one side of which is in Norway and the other in 
Finland. The water in this fiord, by a sweep of the Gulf 
Stream round the coast, where Norway cuts off Sweden 
from the Arctic Ocean, is almost always open. The rail- 
road, to reach it, would have to pass through Finland, 
guarded by Russian or Finnish soldiers. This consider- 
ation may have had weight with the young Czar. We call 
him an autocrat, and that indeed is one of his imperial 
titles ; but we should do well to remember that he is no 
autocrat in the sense that Nero was an autocrat, or Peter 
the Great, or the Grand Monarque of France. I say 
nothing of the Sultan of Turkey, for he is hampered by the 
knot of men whom we call the Sublime Porte, and by 
friendly and unfriendly foreign ambassadors. The Czar 
can do very little by himself; he is liable to encounter 
opposition from his ministers, and he can neither stop the 
course of the world, nor alter substantially the trend of 
public opinion among his advisers, or the deep-seated in- 
ternational prejudices of his people. 

One project that the Czar has much at heart is the per- 
manent solution of the peasant and agricultural problem. 

" The sudden change produced by the abolition of serfdom 
from the farming of large estates, to the working of small farms, 
brought millions of debt upon the Government, which was nearly 
reduced to bankruptcy. Money was advanced to the former 
serfs to pay indemnities to the nobles, and to provide themselves 
with live-stock, implements, and seed. So well has the country 
been brought through these perils, thanks to the peaceful policy 
of Alexander III., and the administrative ability of the great 
finance Minister, M. de Witte, that the country is now prosper- 
ous and progressive. ' All it needs is peace, and time for nat- 
ural development.' " 



156 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

To this end, railroads are being opened in all directions, 
river navigation encouraged, and emigration to waste lands 
along new railroad routes is assisted by the Government. 

A railroad to the Arctic Ocean is not the only project for 
an outlet into frozen waters that is said to be in contempla- 
tion by Russia. Great improvements have been made dur- 
ing the past five years at Archangel, and there is reason to 
think that in connection with the great rivers of Siberia, 
and with the help of the " Ermak " and other ice-breakers 
of her description, a plan is on foot for utilizing for com- 
mercial purposes the White Sea. 

But the enterprise most hkely to be carried shortly into 
effect is Russia's great project to open water communica- 
tion between the Baltic and the Black Sea. The whole 
course of this water-way will run through well populated 
and productive provinces. Already there is a canal which 
facilitates transportation between the Baltic and the Cas- 
pian ; but it is inadequate to the immense demands made 
on it for moving an ever-increasing output of petroleum, 
salt, grain, and other products. In a military point of view, 
the canal now projected, which is to be wide and deep, 
may be to Russian war-ships what the railroad now in pro- 
cess of construction will be to the Russian army. 

These things, those who call themselves " young people," 
when they read this book, may see completed, and in use 
during their lifetime. Immense in that day will be the 
power of Russia. Will Napoleon's prophecy be fulfilled, 
that in the twentieth century, Europe will either be Repub- 
lican or Cossack ? Let us hope that if the latter be the 
case, the Norse and Saxon races may divide influence with 
Russia, and, laying aside past jealousies, work together for 
the civilization of remote parts of the world ! 

Since the past eighteen months have brought sorrow, 
disappointment, and perplexity to the Czar, we do not 
wonder at the feeling which recently led him and his wife 
to Moscow to comfort their hearts and strengthen their 
hands for work, by prayers upon the very spot where their 
solemn consecration had taken place. In that church of 



FINLAND 157 

hallowed memories their hearts said, doubtless : " Surely 
the Lord is in this place; this is the gate of Heaven;" 
and such feelings seem to make a tie of kinship between 
them and all of us who know the blessedness of prayer. 
There, too, together with their infant children, they received 
the Holy Eucharist ; for in Russia babes and sucklings are 
admitted to that rite, as well as to the other Sacrament of 
Baptism. But it is the publication of the imperial thanks 
to the Almighty for permission to make this pilgrimage, 
and to offer prayers to Heaven in this place, that to the 
mind of Western Christians seems unusual. 

Here is the text of the rescript addressed on Easter 
Morning, 1900, to the Grand Duke Sergius, the Governor 
of Moscow : — 

" The fervent wish of myself and the Tzaritza Alexandra that 
we should be enabled to pass the Holy Week and the Festival 
of Festivals, and to receive the Holy Communion with our 
children, in the shadow of the Kremlin in Moscow, surrounded 
by the most sacred objects of our people, has, through the 
grace of God, been fulfilled. Here in the cradle of the autoc- 
racy, where saints repose undisturbed amid the resting-places 
of the crowned builders and expanders of the Russian Empire, 
our prayers rise with increased strength to the Lord of Lords, 
and here a calm joy fills the soul in prayer. United with my 
people, I derive fresh strength to work for the welfare and fame 
of Russia, and it affords me special joy to express to your Im- 
perial Highness, and through you to beloved Moscow, the feel- 
ings which fill my breast." 

" The public announcement made by the Czar and his wife 
of the pleasure that they felt in being permitted by Provi- 
dence to offer up prayers in Moscow, though unusual, sug- 
gests in the Czar a certain earnestness of belief which throws 
much light, and on the whole a pleasant light, upon a charac- 
ter as yet but little understood. . . . Sovereigns who per- 
ceive so plainly the complexity of human affairs, and the 
power! essness even of the greatest to control events, must 
feel more than any men the necessity for aid and guidance 
from some Power higher than themselves. . . . There is a ring 
in the words of the Czar's rescript which suggests that he found 
actual comfort in going to Moscow as on a pilgrimage. ... It 
may seem strange that an autocrat should say such things 



158 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

aloud to a whole people ; but why should he say them if he 
does not feel them ? We think it infinitely more probable that 
he does feel them, or in other words that Nicholas II., Emperor 
of Russia, thinks himself . nearer the realization of his hopes 
because he asked aid from the Almighty in a place which 
to him, above all others, seems most holy. . . . The rescript 
may be a matter of form, but we prefer to believe that it was 
published in an overflow of feeling, and gives us a singular 
glimpse into the mind of the greatest monarch in the world, 
revealing a nature radically pious, and perhaps not disinclined 
to a little superstition. In the latter quaUty, Nicholas is but 
Russian ; and indeed a sovereign must be genuinely Russian at 
heart to publish to the millions of Russia such words, in the 
full confidence that his thought will not be misapprehended. 
There are strong bonds in Russia between the sovereign and 
the people, much stronger than the majority of Western men 
are apt to believe." ^ 

1 " The Spectator," London, April 28, 1900. 




THE EMPRESS OF RUSSIA. 



CHAPTER IV 

THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 

"^^/"HILE correcting the proofs of " Russia and Turkey 
* • in the Nineteenth Century," in September, 1893, I 
heard for the first time rumors of the persecution of Chris- 
tians in Asia Minor. I added to my volume a brief note 
on this subject, but what are now known as " the Armenian 
massacres " had not then taken place. 

My opinion of the personal character of Abdul Hamid, 
as expressed in the following extract, remains unchanged, in 
spite of the denunciations of Mr. Gladstone, and in spite 
of the conviction that each event in the East seems to 
stamp deeper into the minds and hearts of all of us, that 
no faith is to be put in any of his promises. 

" It is," said a well-informed English resident in Constanti- 
nople, writing in the " Contemporary Review," " probably impos- 
sible for any Christian or European to criticise the policy of 
Abdul Hamid's reign in a way that would seem to him just or 
accurate. He is an honest, amiable man, overworked and 
oppressed by the task he has undertaken ; of kindly spirit^ 
keenly sensitive to criticism, distrustful of all around him, in 
constant fear of assassination, with a keen sense of the dangers 
by which his empire is surrounded, disinclined to commit him- 
self on any important political question, but yet possessed of 
considerable moral courage and self-confidence. ... It is true 
of Abdul Hamid, as of Alexander III., that his policy has not 
been adopted through personal ambition or a love of power, 
but from a sense of duty to his religion and his country." 

We might add that he has firm faith in the eventual 
triumph of Islamism. That whether he himself or another 
is called to be King of Kings and Vicar of the Prophet, 
the time is coming when Christianity and Judaism will be 



l60 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

crushed out, and all the heathen converted by the power 
of the sword. 

Recently there has appeared a book upon ex-Sultan 
Murad by a Turkish exile in Paris, Dejemaleddin Bey, 
who professes to know more than he probably does know, 
when he reports a conversation between Abdul Hamid and 
Midhat Pasha, who, in 1876, was endeavoring to persuade 
the former to mount the throne of Turkey, and consent to 
the deposition of his elder brother. The conversation may 
be apocryphal, but it throws light on the reasons why 
promises made by the Sultan to Christians are invariably 
broken. Midhat is represented as ironically urging reforms 
in the Empire, but deprecating compliance with the exac- 
tions of European Powers. 

Midhat. Unless your Highness promises reforms, Europe 
will not back up your claim to sovereignty. 

Abdul Hamid. Our religion is theocratic, based on the 
Koran as interpreted by the unchangeable dogmas of the Mul- 
teka, from which there is no appeal. How then can any con- 
stitution be promulgated which professes to give that equality 
to Mussulmans and Christians which is altogether inconsistent 
with this religious law ? Either we cease to be a nation, or we 
must maintain the decrees of Islam, which change not. You 
smile, but I do not see my way out of this difficulty. 

Midhat. The Foreign Governments have the power in 
their hands, and how shall we oppose them ? We may promise 
indeed, but no true believer is bound by a compact made with 
a Giaour. 

Here Midhat is supposed to draw a brilliant picture of 
Turkey regenerated by a ParUament and Constitution. 

Abdul Hamid. How can you carry this out ? 

Midhat. I cannot carry it out at all. The "sick man," 
as they call Turkey, must be sick indeed, if he thinks about 
keeping such promises. What I propose is to evade them. 
. . . English Turkophiles are stubbornly incredulous to the 
closest evidence against us, and are greedy to swallow any 
impossible argument against Russia, the bete notre of England. 
This being so, I will draw up a constitution which, though it 
may seem to offer the privileges of liberty and equal justice 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA l6l 

to the aliens under our rule, will not bind us down to any 
performance. 

Abdul Hamid. But how, in contradiction to the principles 
of the Koran, can you proclaim that all subjects are equal in 
the eye of the law ? 

MiDHAT. Nothing more easy. Add the words " without 
prejudice to what regards religion," and the promise is at once 
null and void. Your Majesty knows that religion pervades 
everything in Turkey. 

And Midhat then proposes a plan to keep the rayahs 
(that is, non-Mohammedan cultivators) out of the Lower 
House of Parliament by requiring that every candidate 
shall speak the Turkish tongue. 

This may be (no doubt it is as reported) an imagi- 
nary conversation, but it throws light on the principles 
on which the Sultan, who is a fanatical " true believer," 
aims to accomplish his great purpose of strengthening the 
ascendency of Mohammedanism in his dominions, and 
thereby re-establishing his tottering throne. 

It would be well, he thinks, no doubt, if there were no 
Christians in his dominions. They have no business in the 
lands that Mussulmans alone should rule ; lands in which, 
day after day, they or their friends are making trouble ; but 
he says in his heart : " If I cannot kill them all at once, or 
drive them out of the country, by all means let them be 
kept under." 

The proposed ParHament met in 1876, the first year of 
Abdul Hamid's reign. It held one session, and conducted 
itself in a way that surprised and delighted foreign ob- 
servers ; but when it began to inquire by what authority the 
treasury had paid over to the Sultan large sums which he 
was not expected to account for, Abdul Hamid exclaimed 
in wrath, and great astonishment, " Would they then de- 
prive me of the right to do what I think best with my own ? " 

The Russo-Turkish war of 1877 was about to begin. 
The Parliament was prorogued with the express promise 
that it should reassemble when the war was over. Its 
leading members have been long in exile, or have un- 
accountably disappeared. The story of the Sultan's coup 



1 62 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

d'etat, by which he got rid of Midhat Pasha, who was 
exiled to Arabia, where he met a speedy death, has never 
been clearly made known to us. If this man really mapped 
out for Abdul Hamid the policy he has since pursued, we 
cannot but admit that he deserved his fate. The master 
whom he placed upon the throne speedily established a 
purely personal despotism, as Uttle controlled as possible 
by the body of ministers, lawyers, imaums, and other 
advisers called the Sublime Porte. 

Attempts he has since made to emancipate himself 
from any interference by the Sublime Porte have not been 
acceptable to those progressive Mohammedans who call 
themselves the party of " Young Turkey," any more than 
his absolute rule has been to foreign diplomatists, or to his 
Christian subjects. 

It should be said, however, that the Sultan in his admin- 
istration has paid great attention to two reforms, which 
are held to be of paramount importance in Christian civili- 
zation. He enforces the laws of cleanliness and health, 
and he encourages education. Roberts College at Con- 
stantinople, established by American Presbyterian mission- 
aries, has never been interfered with, and some favor has 
also been shown to an American mission school for the 
education of girls. 

The unfortunate Murad — the deposed sultan, whose 
history I trust interested the readers of my " Russia and 
Turkey in the Nineteenth Century " — was at first treated by 
his brother and successor with respect and consideration. 
He was permitted to inhabit the luxurious palace of Tche- 
ragan, but was afterwards removed to a gloomy old build- 
ing within the confines of the Sultan's private and closely 
guarded domain of Yildiz. 

Yildiz Palace is beyond Pera, on a height that commands 
a magnificent view. Its grounds are beautiful. It has a 
park that is miles in extent, walled in, and guarded by the 
imperial police. There the Sultan spends his days, never 
going out of its gates except on Fridays to a contiguous 
mosque, or to hold receptions in the Dolma-Baghtche 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 63 

Palace at the feast of Bairam, or once a year to visit Saint 
Sophia. Abdul Hamid lives in splendid imprisonment. 
There are, within the grounds of Yildiz, luxurious pavil- 
ions and kiosks ; the harem is in the midst of a beautiful 
flower garden ; there are lakes where wild fowl can be 
shot, and fish-ponds stocked with fishes ; there is even a 
theatre where plays are sometimes acted before the Sultan 
and his children.-' But within the limits of Yildiz is the old 
palace of Top Kapou that contains the captive Murad, and 
another where Reschid, the Sultan's younger brother and 
legitimate successor, resides in almost as close captivity as 
the ex-sultan. The secrets of these prison-houses are not 
revealed to us, but from time to time comes a rumor that 
Murad's health is entirely restored, and that some member 
of his household has been punished for having dared to 
say so. 

Not long since there was some cause of complaint started 
against a great Pasha, the brother-in-law of the Sultan. 
Whether he was guilty of conspiracy, or of affiliation with 
the party of young Turkey, is not known. He made his 
escape to France, where he now resides, and the Sultan 
has made many efforts to get him back into his power. 

Alas ! poor Sultan ! As Sir Edward Dicey says : — 

" There must always be a thrill of sympathy in the hearts of 
spectators when this pale, care-worn man suddenly appears on 
Fridays for the Selamik, — in other words, when he makes his 
public appearance on the way to public prayers. He goes to a 
mosque only a few yards from his own gate, guarded by thou- 
sands of soldiers, solitary in the midst of a brilliant retinue, — 
the successor of proud monarchs at whose very name the world 
once trembled, but the friendless occupant of a trembling 
throne." 

Yet even in his treatment of his brothers he has shown 
more fraternal kindness than any preceding Sultan up to 
the days of his father Abdul Medjid. By permission of the 

1 A further account of the private life of Abdul Hamid may be 
found in " Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century." Chapter 
xiv., pp. 344-353. 



1 64 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Koran, and by Turkish custom, he would have been held 
blameless had he put to death all pretenders or possible 
successors to his throne. Abdul Hamid has only shut 
them up in close confinement, where as much respect is 
paid them as is consistent with their seclusion. 

With pretensions, as King of Kings and Vicar of the 
Prophet, to sovereignty over the whole Mohammedan 
world (pretensions which his predecessors for several gene- 
rations had left in abeyance), it is easy to see how anxious 
Abdul Hamid must be to establish complete authority over 
his own subjects. The law of the Koran with respect to 
unbelievers is to give them their choice of " Islam, tribute, 
or the sword." Ever since the foundation of the Ottoman 
empire in Europe, a tax has been laid on all Christians in 
the Sultan's dominions for permission to live. By the 
chances of war, Abdul Hamid has been relieved of large 
bodies of unruly Christians ; but under his sway remain the 
Christians in Macedonia, who live prosperously under Mus- 
sulman domination, but quarrel bitterly among themselves. 
Christians in Crete, and the Armenian Christians. Of 
these, the Armenians are at once the most annoying, the 
most assailable, and the least accessible to foreign Powers, 
should interference be attempted. 

Armenia, which before the days of Roman supremacy in 
Western Asia was a large and flourishing kingdom, is 
to-day divided among Turkey, Russia, and Persia. In its 
palmy days it consisted of two parts, lying east and west 
of the Euphrates. It became a battle-ground during the 
wars between the Romans and the populations of Western 
Asia, and when these wars had left it waste and desolate, 
it fell into anarchy. One hundred and seventy-six petty 
chieftains, it is said, claimed independent sovereignty. 

Tradition says that its first missionaries were the Apostles 
Thaddeus and Bartholomew, but in the middle of the third 
century of our era, Christianity became its national religion. 
Its king, a young man educated in Rome, with Roman 
prejudices, began his reign as a persecutor. He put Saint 
Gregory the Illuminator into prison, and was proceeding 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 165 

to deal brutally with other Christians, when he was assailed 
by a mysterious illness, of which he was cured by the 
intercession of the saint he had persecuted. On his 
recovery, he proclaimed himself a Christian, and his sub- 
jects, for the most part, followed his example. In 410, the 
Bible was translated into Armenian. 

Two hundred years after Armenia had accepted the 
Christian faith, it was overrun by pagan Persians, who 
endeavored to exterminate the Christian population. In 
839, the country was subjugated by the Mohammedan 
Caliphs ; but it was never quiet and prosperous at any 
period of its history. 

The Armenians of Armenia Minor (that is, of the country 
west of the Euphrates) joined the Crusaders. They were 
the last bulwark of Christianity left in the East, and by the 
close of the fourteenth century, Armenian nationality seems 
to have been wiped out. The Kurds occupied part of the 
land that had once been Armenia ; Persia appropriated 
another part ; and the Ottoman Empire absorbed the 
remainder. Timour ravaged the country, and was espe- 
cially savage in his treatment of the Christians. A Persian 
prince in 1604 laid the whole land waste, and carried away 
forty thousand of its inhabitants to settle in his dominions. 
Since then, the Armenians have ceased to be a nation. They 
are a people scattered through many lands, like the Jews. 
Like the Jews, they engage in banking and in commerce, 
and their bond of cohesion is their religion. Originally a 
brave and warlike people, they have until recently been 
distinguished for their peaceable submission to any govern- 
ment under which they live. 

Russian Armenia consists of a province conquered from 
Persia, and was roused to disaffection by the persistent 
efforts of Alexander III. to impose the Orthodox Greek 
Church on all his subjects. In dogma and, indeed, in 
ritual, the Armenian Church differs little from the Greek 
Church, from which it separated on a misunderstanding 
A. D. 451. The Orthodox Greek Church of Holy Russia 
acknowledges the Czar as its spiritual and temporal head, 
while the Armenian Church is governed by its patriarchs. 



1 66 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

In the fifteenth century, a strong effort was made by 
Jesuit missionaries to unite the Church of Armenia to the 
Roman See. The effort was successful, so far that it 
established a branch of the Roman Catholic Church among 
the Armenian people. These Armenian Roman Catholics 
call themselves Gregorians, and the Armenian Monastery 
in Venice, so well known in connection with Lord Byron's 
history, belongs to them. 

By the Treaty of San Stefano, made in 1878, when the 
victorious army of Russia was almost at the gates of Con- 
stantinople, Russia compelled the Sultan to promise satis- 
factory reforms to the Armenian Christians. But Russian 
diplomatists knew too well the worth of Turkish promises 
to trust to the fulfilment of any which would violate the 
ruling principle of Islamism ; viz., that Mohammedans are, 
and ought to be, in all. things the masters and superiors of 
Jews and Christians. Russians knew also that another law 
of the Koran enjoins submission, or at least the appearance 
of submission, to any force too strong to be resisted. It 
was, therefore, stipulated that Russian troops should occupy 
Turkish Armenia, until the promised reforms were carried 
out. 

The Treaty of San Stefano was set aside by the Powers at 
the Congress of Berlin, where they pronounced themselves 
satisfied with the bare promises of the Sultan. Prince 
Gortschakoff, the Russian representative, pleaded earnestly 
that Russian troops might be stationed in the country, at 
least until the reforms had been begun ; but England, 
relying on the Convention of Cyprus, pledged herself that 
the Armenians should sustain no harm after the withdrawal 
of the Russian soldiers. " I would have cut off my right 
hand," said Sir Philip Currie, long English ambassador at 
Constantinople, " rather than that it should have put my 
name to that agreement." 

The Convention of Cyprus was a secret treaty signed by 
England and Turkey a few days before the Congress of 
the Powers met at Berlin. The document stipulated that 
England should defend Turkey by force of arms, if any 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 6/ 

power attempted to annex Armenia. In return, the Sultan 
promised England " to introduce necessary reforms, to be 
agreed upon later between the two Powers, for the protec- 
tion of Christians and other subjects of the Porte in Ar- 
menia ; and in order to enable England to make necessary- 
provision for executing her engagement " (by which was. 
meant, keeping Russia out of Armenia), "his Imperial 
Majesty, the Sultan, further consents to assign the island 
of Cyprus to be occupied and administered by England." 

The island of Cyprus has since then been of no use to 
England, though it has entailed heavy expense. At the 
same time, as it contains many Christians, no Enghsh 
government could hand it back to the tender mercies of 
Mohammedan rulers, and, having accepted the cession of 
the island, England is bound to keep her engagement for 
value received, however little the Sultan may have fulfilled 
his promises of Armenian reforms. 

For some years, however, after 1878 there was peace in 
Armenia ; that is, such peace as there ever can be between 
Christians and Mohammedans in the Turkish provinces. 
The Kurds, who inhabited the mountains, made raids, 
whenever need or inclination prompted them, on the 
Armenian villages. It was the same state of things that 
prevailed in Scotland before the Union, when caterans 
came down upon the Lowlands, plundering farms and 
driving away cattle. Like Highland freebooters, the 
Kurds exacted blackmail from those who preferred not 
to be robbed by their incursions, and the payment of these 
exactions at length became so ruinous that, in times of bad 
harvest, the peasants offered it as an excuse to Turkish tax- 
gatherers for non-payment of their taxes. Not to pay 
tribute forfeited their right to live. 

While the Armenian peasantry were thus suffering, revolu- 
tionary emissaries appeared among them. These people 
called themselves Hunchagists. For the most part, they 
entered the country from Russian Armenia. They endeav- 
ored to form revolutionary societies among the villagers, 
and stuck up in conspicuous places revolutionary placards. 



1 68 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

One such was posted on the wall of an American mission- 
ary college, but was at once torn down by the college 
authorities. The villagers showed these people little sym- 
pathy. They were, for the most part, more afraid of the 
Hunchagists than of the Kurds. 

"These men," said a scholarly arid inteJligent Armenian to 
Mr. Hepworth, "make their living out of agitation; but we poor 
creatures are made to suffer for their idiocy. Is that just ? . . . 
I assure you that no one fears the revolutionists as the average 
Armenian does. Ah ! we were once a happy people. We 
paid large taxes ; we had large business interests ; we were 
contented and prosperous. But the Treaty of Berlin ! And 
the interference of England ! If Europe would let us alone, we 
might still have a future. Europe has roused the worst passions 
of the Turk against us, has excited his suspicions, and left us 
in the lurch to die or live as God may will." 

The Kurds (the race from which chivalrous wSaladin 
sprung) are a people divided into clans, each governed 
in pa'rt by its own Sheikh. They live in the mountains of 
the land once called Armenia, but that name is now pro- 
scribed. It must neither be printed nor six)ken. Armenia 
is now Anatolia, or rather, it is part of Anatolia, an integral 
province of the Turkish Empire. The Kurds are scattered 
among the mountains. They are brigands by instinct and 
by tradition. They have none of the finer traits of the 
brave, obedient, Turkish regular soldier, but are char- 
acterized by a certain good-nature, coupled with brutality. 
The Sultan may have feared that if Russia should attempt 
to seize Turkish Armenia, the Kurdish tribes might join 
v/ith the invaders. 

Abdul Hamid, in 1891, approached these lawless clans on 
their weak side, and his promises inflamed them with en- 
thusiasm. He invited their Sheikhs to Constantinople ; he 
received them graciously ; he bestowed on them decorations, 
and sent them back to their native hills with instructions 
to their new commander, Zekki Pasha, to organize all 
able-bodied men in their villages into regiments of cavalry. 
They were supplied with showy uniforms and modern 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 69 

weapons. The Sultan gave them his own name — the 
Hamideih cavalry. Without giving up their old ways, or 
even the village life that they had led, they took the 
Sultan's pay, and became part of the Turkish army. It 
is the custom in Turkey to send regiments away from the 
provinces in which they were enlisted ; but this rule was 
reversed in the case of the Kurds. On a sudden their 
clans became enthusiastically loyal to the Sultan. They 
have little of the religious element in their nature ; they 
are lukewarm Mohammedans, but they are daring, dashing, 
reckless, unscrupulous warriors, who have always found 
restraint irksome. " They are careless both of their own 
lives, and of the lives of others, a wild, untamed, and 
semi-savage race who know absolutely nothing about what 
we call civilization." 

Authorized to act as brigands, with the name and with 
the pay of Turkish soldiers, the Kurds resumed their raids 
on the Armenian villages. Their first outbreak was in May, 
1894, when they fell upon a village not very far from Bitlis, 
which lies under the shadow of Mount Ararat. It was 
rumored that some Russian agitators had been harbored 
in its houses, and Kurdish chiefs were sent to arrest them, 
with permission to kill all who offered any opposition, and 
with leave to appropriate the spoil. The Armenians pur- 
sued the Kurds when they were driving off their cattle, 
A fight ensued, and some of the spoilers were killed. The 
authorities telegraphed to Constantinople that " Armenians 
had killed some of the Sultan's troops." 

Abdul Hamid, greatly excited, sent orders at once to 
harry the Armenian villages, to kill, burn, pillage, and 
destroy. No more was needed. 

"From the 12th of August to the 4th of September," says 
the report of an English consul, " it is not too much to say that 
the Armenians were absolutely hunted like wild beasts, being 
killed wherever they were met, and if the slaughter was not 
greater, it was, I believe, solely owing to the vastness of the 
mountain ranges of that district, which enabled the people to 
scatter, and so facihtated their escape." 



lyo LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

I think one or two narratives taken from the hps of 
survivors will give my readers a better idea than words of 
mine can offer them, of the horrors that took place in the 
valley of a district called Sassoun, during three weeks of 
massacre and pillage. Here is the story of one man who 
escaped death. It is somewhat abridged, however.^ 

" Up to 1894, my family was a prosperous one, as were most 
of the families in the district of Sassoun. The Kurds, who lived 
above us, were, on the whole, friendly, though they frequently 
practised their habitual business of stealing cattle and sheep; 
but we were generally able to retake our own, or others in their 
place. . . . When the attack came, we endeavored to escape 
to a high mountain above our village, hastily carrying with us 
our families and our cattle. . . . The Kurds set fire to our vil- 
lage, and from a distance in the dark, we could see it burning. 
. , . From one rocky refuge or ruined sheep-cote to another, 
we were chased by Kurdish soldiers. At one village where our 
Aghas lived (the Kurdish chiefs to whom we paid blackmail), 
they endeavored, but in vain, to protect us. Day after day, 
night after night, we wandered on the mountains. Each night 
below us we saw villages in flames. One of my brothers, his 
daughter, fifteen years old, and I entered a forest. Two sol- 
diers saw us. They shot my brother and his child, but I es- 
caped. I joined my family, and told them what had happened. 
Returning next day to the forest, I found the bodies, and en- 
deavored to bury them. But the soldiers reappeared. 1 took 
to flight, and hid myself. Soon after I met another refugee in 
the forest. We were so faint and hungry that we lit a fire and 
began to cook part of a dead ox that we had found, but our fire 
betrayed us. Soldiers were approaching ; we hid among some 
rocks, trembling with terror. There were two soldiers; tliey 
caught sight of us. They fired. They wounded me twice, and 
thought they had killed me. My companion was also hit, and 
fell. One of them, believing me to be dead, proposed to cut 
me to pieces ; but the other objected, saying they had no water 
to wash their swords. When they went off I spoke to my com- 
panion, and he answered very feebly, that he could neither walk 
nor move. With a ball in my thigh, and gashes on my head 
and shoulders, I was in the same condition. Oh ! our distress 
that night! Weary, hungry, thirsty, wounded, — should we lie 

1 "Turkey and the Armenian Atrocities," by Rev. E. M. Bliss 
and Rev. Cyius Hamlin. 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 'iji 

there and die in anguish, or be the prey of wild Ijeasts? I cried 
to the soldiers : ' Come and l<ill us ! Put us out of our misery! ' 
But my weak voice did not reach them. At last some Arme- 
nians came toward us. They were weak like ourselves ; but, at 
my entreaties they, with great effort, carried us to a ruined dove- 
cote, and gave us water, and some cheese. Then they departed. 
Bullets flew over us, and all around us. . . . After three weeks 
of suffering, we learned that a firman had arrived ordering the 
massacre to cease. The soldiers then drove all the fugitives 
they could collect, whether wounded or unwounded, back to 
their ruined villages. At Vartenis I found my wife, but of the 
rest of my family I know nothing." 

Let me be impartial. An account from Erzeroum, after 
relating unspeakable horrors, which, says the editor of the 
book from which I quote, "beggar description," goes on 
to say : — 

" But there were redeeming features. Many Turks [civilians] 
rescued Armenians who appealed to them. They kept them in 
their houses, or in their shops, till it was safe to send them 
home. In one instance a Turk hid an Armenian under a pile 
of wool in his own. shop. The Kurds discovered the man, and 
the only way in which his preserver could save him from in- 
stant death was by proclaiming that he knew him to be a bad 
Armenian, who ought to be kept for hanging. In the end his 
protector got him to a place of safety, and restored his watch 
and money, which he had claimed as his share of the plunder." 

Here is another extract from a letter from Sassoun : 

" The cruel storm of carnage rolled on, until not less than 
thirty villages had been laid waste, and so completely destroyed 
that even their names were effaced from official records. As to 
the number killed, it is almost impossible to give any accurate 
estimate. It must have been five or six thousand, many put it 
much higher. Some soldiers said that a hundred fell to each 
one of them to dispose of; some wept because unenlisted Kurds 
had done more execution than they. Some, however, claimed to 
have been unwilhng actors in the scene, and suffered great 
mental torments. The wife of one noticed that he failed to 
pray, as had been his invariable custom. She spoke of it to 
him, and he answered: ' God will not hear me. If there is a 
God, He will take vengeance for these awful deeds. Is there 



172 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

any use to pray?' It is also told of other soldiers that on 
reaching their homes they inquired of Armenian acquaintances, 
'Who is this Jesus of Nazareth? The Sassoun women were 
constantly calling out to him to help them.' " 

As the indemnity for the destruction of American Mis- 
sionary Buildings at Harpoot is at present a matter of diplo- 
macy, it may be well to tell something of what took place 
there at the close of 1895. Up to that time the Harpoot 
plain had been noted as one of the most fertile districts in 
Armenia. Its inhabitants were quiet people, both Turks 
and Armenians. At the American College, Turkish officials 
were always welcomed, and expressed themselves pleased 
when they were present at its exercises. The missionaries 
had always been on good terms with the officials, especially 
with the provincial governor. There was not a sign of 
revolutionary influence in the district, and all went well, 
until bands of Kurds appeared from mountains in the 
north and east. Then villages were sacked and plun- 
dered. Officials assured the missionaries that they and 
their buildings would be safe. But on Monday, Nov. 11, 
1895, the attack began, Turkish soldiers of the regular 
army not taking part in it, but doing nothing, though they 
were present in force, to prevent massacre and pillage. 
American houses were sacked and set on fire ; frightened 
refugees took shelter in the missionary buildings. Some 
fled to the hills. The college was set on fire, so was the 
chapel. The high school building was saved by one of the 
missionaries, who worked a small fire-engine. The plan 
seemed to be to burn down the buildings, and drive the 
Americans and their converts away. The Turkish military 
commander being applied to, said : " I know that I said 
three days ago I would be cut in pieces before I allowed a 
Kurd to molest you, but what could I do against fifteen 
thousand Kurds?" 

And so the horrid deeds, of the extent of which 
these extracts give but a small idea, went on for two 
months. Christian bishops, priests, teachers, and common 
people were killed. Many were tortured; some were 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA I'Jl 

bound, covered with brushwood, and burned alive ; espe- 
cial spite was shown to ecclesiastics, whose bodies were 
mutilated and dishonored. The attacking parties made 
use of petroleum when they fired the buildings, and, while 
the men were killed, women and girls were forced to em- 
brace Islamism, though many resisted, and were destroyed 
by the soldiers, or flung themselves into the Euphrates. 

I think this is enough. A missionary lady, writing from 
Urfa (a place identified as Ur of the Chaldees), says, "The 
wreck of the place is complete. Nothing remains but ruins. 
By actual count, only ten Protestants remain. Our loss of 
life is one hundred and five, all but nine being men. Our 
wounded are many. It was evident that the utmost was 
done to protect tne. But how willingly would I have died 
that the thousands of parents might have been spared to 
their children ! Some have a little food hidden in their 
houses ; some have nothing. One of the several great men, 
who have called on me to express sympathy, and to say, in 
Turkish style : ' It was from God,' has sent provisions, for 
which I am extremely grateful, and the Government pro- 
vides two hundred loaves of bread a day." 

For many years no Christian place of worship could be 
built, rebuilt, or even repaired without a permit, and a per- 
mit it was very difficult to secure. The Sultan felt he was 
making a concession, which Americans are, however, un- 
able to appreciate, when he said lately he would give per- 
mits for the re-erection of all American missionary buildings 
that had been destroyed, even if he could not pay the 
required indemnity. 

" The question is frequently asked," say the writers of the 
book from which I have freely quoted, " What are the relations 
between the missionaries and the Turkish Government ? Re- 
peatedly the statement is made by that government that the 
influence of the missionaries is antagonistic, disturbing, and 
that they are enemies to the present rule. This is in no sense 
true. American missionaries have unanimously ranked them- 
selves on the side of law. They have taken the position that 
the Turkish Government is the law of the land, and must be 
obeyed. Yet it. is true that the general result of their instruction, 



174 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

by stirring intellectual development, has been to make men 
restive under oppression." 

Every precaution was taken to prevent any knowledge of 
these earliest massacres finding its way to Christendom. 
At Constantinople the truth was known, and the Sultan be- 
came very apprehensive of the effect the news might have 
upon the Western nations. This did not prevent him from 
sending banners to the Kurdish regiments engaged in the 
massacre, and a decoration to Zekki Pasha, who had hur- 
ried to the scene of massacre and read to the troops the 
Sultan's irade, which authorized the extermination of Arme- 
nians. Then, hanging the document upon his breast, 
he exhorted the soldiers not to be found wanting in their 
duty. It was the last day of August, the anniversary of the 
Sultan's accession, when the soldiers were thus vehemently 
urged to distinguish themselves by slaughter. 

Mr. Hepworth, who, in 1898, made a horseback journey 
through Armenia, as correspondent of the " New York 
Herald," says feelingly : — 

" Let me pay my tribute to the marvellous heroism of the 
Armenians in the heart-rending ordeal through which they 
passed. From all parts of Armenia — from Harpoot on the 
west to Van on the Persian border — come the same stories 
of the moral courage under which they met their doom. The 
true and indomitable spirit of martyrdom prevailed throughout 
that region, and those poor victims of a very stupid persecution, 
which was profitable to no one, were as noble in their death as 
they were faithful in their lives. They saw their houses looted 
and then burned ; they were driven into the mountains to perish 
with cold and hunger; they lost all thejr cattle, and fell from 
comfort into direst poverty, and yet they accepted their fate 
with a resignation which excites not only our admiration but 
surprise. ... In some instances, they renounced their religion 
to save their lives, . . . but in the history of the massacres 
those who made an outward surrender of their faith were very 
few. The vast majority were strong enough to face their mur- 
derers, and let them sheathe their weapons in their quivering 
flesh. What degree of praise is due to such ? Remember that 
they were mostly poor people, living in mud-huts and filth, just 
as their Mohammedan neighbors did, illiterate, uncultured, 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 75 

unrefined, and yet, when the great crisis came, they bowed their 
heads, and died for sake of their religion. Think of women 
who had lived in the environment I have described, holding 
their honor at such a price that they deliberately leaped from 
a high bank of the Euphrates, and sank beneath the raging 
torrent, rather than submit to the lust of the Kurds. Can the 
old days of Roman persecution furnish nobler examples of self- 
sacrifice than this ? " 

In spite of all precautions, rumors of what had happened 
in Sassoun reached the European governments, through 
their consuls, and thence found their way to the United 
States. 

United States senators, roused by newspaper reports of 
the atrocities committed by Turkish soldiers, made a strong 
effort in December, 1894, to induce their government, in the 
name of Christianity and humanity, to attempt interference. 
The reply of the Government, in a Presidential Message, 
was that a few days before (November 28) the following 
telegram had been received from its ambassador in Con- 
stantinople, 

" Newspaper reports of massacres and atrocities at Sassoun 
are sensational and exaggerated. The killing was in a conflict 
between armed Armenians ^ and Turkish soldiers. The Grand 
Vizier says it was necessary to suppress insurrection, and that 
about fifty Turks were killed. Between three and four hundred 
Armenian guns were picked up after the fight, and he reports 
that about that number of Armenians were killed. I give credit 
to his statements." 

This telegram was communicated to Congress on Decem- 
ber 2. The same day came another despatch to the State 
Department in Washington, in which the ambassador said, 
as follows : — 

1 The ambassador might have known that an official permit is 
required to allow subjects of the Sultan in distant towns to own or 
carry arms. These permits were freely given to Kurds or others 
known to be favored by the Government, but no Armenian dared 
even to ask for one for fear of imprisonment. There were, indeed, a 
few old flint-lock guns in these villages altered into breech-loaders 
by a revolutionary gunsmith sent from Russia. 



176 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

" Information from British ambassador indicates far more loss 
of lives in Armenia, attended with atrocities, than stated in my 
telegram of November 28." 

The British Government had consuls in the disturbed 
district, Wao sent information to their ambassador. The 
United States had no consuls in those places. Had there 
been an American consul at Harpoot, or at Marash a year 
later, possibly the buildings of the American mission would 
not have been destroyed. Owing to strong representations 
in Congress on the subject, consuls after that were ap- 
pointed by our government, but the Sublime Porte refused 
them the exequaturs which acknowledged their official 
position. Many regular soldiers called in to assist the 
Kurds were animated by the impression the Turkish offi- 
cers received from Constantinople and disseminated among 
their men, that they were acting under the express orders 
of the Sultan. Subsequently, when Abdul Hamid learned 
how far things had gone, and reahzed the position in 
which he stood with European Powers, he summoned the 
official who had sent his ord^r to the Kurds to kill, plun- 
der, and destroy, and upbraided him so sharply that the 
man dropped dead in his presence from a shock that 
accelerated heart disease. 

" You talk of Turkey's weakness," said a Turkish gentle- 
man to a European. " Turkey's strength lies in the divisions 
among yourselves." And so it has proved in the matter of 
Armenia. If one of the Six Powers proposed a measure, 
and could get one or two to agree to it, there were certain 
to be at least two who opposed it. Germany was the most 
obstructive. Russia opposed any plan for erecting Armenia 
into a principality. She would not, she said, consent to 
have a new Bulgaria on her frontier. 

A committee of investigation, appointed by foreign gov- 
ernments to report upon the massacres in the valleys of 
Sassoun, succeeded at last in sending in a report, in spite of 
obstacles of all kinds thrown in their way. They said that the 
Hunchagist revolutionists had done their best to rouse the 
Armenians. They ascertained that the Kurdish chiefs and 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA lyj 

Kurdish soldiers understood that, by consent in Constanti- 
nople, they might harry and rob refractory villages at their 
will, when attacked by their inhabitants. So much pres- 
sure was brought to bear on the Sublime Porte concerning 
the Sassoun massacres, however, that the Sultan consented 
to appoint a committee, not to investigate the massacre of 
Christians, but, as he said, " To report upon outrages com- 
mitted by Armenian brigands." 

A purely Turkish committee by no means met the views 
of the European ambassadors at Constantinople, who at 
length obtained leave for the dragomans of the English, 
French, and Russian consulates at Erzeroum to be present 
at its sittings, but without power to question witnesses or in 
any other way to take part in the proceedings. By especial 
desire of Congress, Mr. Jewett, an American, was also ap- 
pointed ; but as he wished to hold a personal investigation 
and examine witnesses himself, he was not allowed to take 
any part in- the proceedings. 

The whole thing proved a cruel farce. Great induce- 
ments were held out to Armenians in prison to sign a paper 
laying all the blame for what had taken place on certain 
Armenian notables, and on the British consul at Van. 

On May ii, 1895, ^^^ consuls of the three Powers, 
England, France, and Russia, presented the Sultan with 
" A Scheme of Reform," which he at first rejected as giving 
to non-Mohammedans privileges inconsistent with the teach- 
ing of the Koran. 

Mr. Terrell, then American ambassador at Constanti- 
nople, wrote to his government of the " Scheme of Re- 
form " : "I am convinced that the so-called reforms will, 
when announced, be followed by a massacre of Armenians 
and a period of great danger to our missionaries. Acting 
upon this conviction, on October 21, when others were re- 
joicing over the irade then issued (accepting the consular 
Scheme of Reform), I demanded, and obtained, telegraphic 
orders to every civil and military chief in the Ottoman 
Empire to protect American missionaries." 

When the anniversary of the Sassoun massacres came 



1/8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

round, and nothing had been done to carry out the " Scheme 
of Reform," the revolutionary Armenians in Constantinople 
planned a deputation to present a petition to the Grand 
Vizier. The procession was blocked by the police, and a 
riot took place, followed by an attack on the whole Arme- 
nian population in Constantinople, in which the softas {i. e. 
the theological students) took a prominent part. This was 
in October, 1895. The Sultan sent his thanks to \h& softas 
for,their exertions on the occasion. 

The news of the attacks on Armenians at Constantinople, 
unchecked and unpunished by those of high degree, ex- 
cited the population of provincial cities. At Trebizond, 
mthout a moment's warning, men proceeded to kill every 
Armenian man and boy in the place. The women were 
reserved for a worse fate. 

This butchery went on for five hours ; then, when there 
was.no man to resist, the mob proceeded to plunder the 
shops and houses of Armenians. No one for these out- 
rages was arrested or even deprived of his weapons. The 
Armenians in city after city were given over to rapine and 
slaughter. They were the merchants, mechanics, bankers, 
and shopkeepers, — the business men, in short, in the 
cities, and great jealousy of their prosperity had long been 
felt by the Turks. Mobs, encouraged by the connivance 
of those in authority, and in some instances really believing 
that Armenians, assisted by the Christian Powers, were 
plotting to dethrone their Sultan, overthrow their govern- 
ment, and stamp out their religion, zealously pursued the 
course marked out for them by their superiors. They rose 
up in all the chief cities of Eastern Turkey. It was said 
that as soon as the Sultan accepted the " Scheme of Re- 
form," these disorders had been planned by his advisers, to 
appear a protest on the part of the Mohammedans against 
any invasion of their racial privileges. 

Two parties threatened the Sultan in the summer and 
autumn of 1896, the Moslems who thought he was no true 
guardian of their faith, and Young Turkey, or the progres- 
sive party. Seditious placards, threatening his deposition, 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 79 

were posted in the capital, and revolutionary circulars were 
distributed in the streets. 

In the district of Zeitoun, the Armenians rose in revolt 
against the government, and succeeded in capturing a strong 
fort and its garrison. The Kurds fell on the defenceless 
villages with more than former fury. In November, soldiers 
joined in sacking the Armenian quarter in Harpoot, and a 
thousand Armenians were killed. One town was saved by 
the gallantry of its Turkish governor, who threw himself in 
front of the Kurdish rifles. In Harpoot the houses of 
American missionaries were looted, and their buildings 
burned, and in Marash the schools of the American 
mission were destroyed. 

• By the end of November, 2,500 Armenian villages, it is 
said, had been destroyed ; the majority of the male popu- 
lation that had inhabited them had been slaughtered, and 
twenty thousand victims were computed in the cities. It 
was estimated that over two hundred thousand in the country 
and seventy-five thousand in the cities were left starving, 
half-naked, and shelterless. 

After the slaughter had been stopped, the Turkish Gov- 
ernment made some efforts to feed the starving; and Miss 
Clara Barton, with relief from the United States, was per- 
mitted by the Sultan to take help to these unhappy people. 

With few exceptions the massacres were confined to 
the provinces to which it had been proposed to apply 
the " Scheme of Reform." And except at Harpoot and 
Marash, where buildings of the American Mission were 
destroyed, the lives and property of foreigners were not 
interfered with. 

Already, as I have said, as early as August there were 
threatenings of an outbreak in Constantinople. Revolution- 
ists desired it, hoping thereby to force the Great Powers 
to intervene on the pretext of protecting Christians. It 
was the policy that had been successfully pursued twenty 
years before, by the revolutionary committees in Bulgaria ; 
fanatical Mohammedans and the Constantinople mob were 
on their part quite ready to rob and slaughter the Arme- 



l8o LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

nians. A scheme was formed by a body of leading Hun- 
chagists to seize the Ottoman Dank and threaten to blow 
it up, unless the Powers, through their representatives in 
Constantinople, would engage to force the Sultan to grant 
and carry out reasonable reforms. The authorities, it 
seems, were fully informed of this plan, but they seem 
to have desired the outbreak. The men who had taken 
possession of the Ottoman Bank were persuaded to evac- 
uate it and go on board an English ship, after receiving 
a promise of protection from the English embassy. But 
bands of ruffians, gathered in various parts of Constanti- 
nople, zealously undertook to kill and plunder the Arme- 
nians. Bodies of soldiers and police looked on, ready to 
prevent any resistance, and to arrest the Armenians if 
necessary. Foreign merchants saw their clerks cut to 
pieces at their own doors. Every man who was recognized 
as an Armenian was killed without mercy. In general the 
soldiers took no part in the massacre, and the Sheikh-ul- 
Islam, with some other leading Turks, exerted themselves 
to save certain Armenian quarters of the city. The mas- 
sacre lasted three days, and seemed systematically con- 
ducted without disorder. 

It was the Government and not the people who con- 
ducted the massacre, though the ignorant and brutal class 
were told that they were acting in the name of the Prophet, 
and one poor woman who had an Armenian family hidden 
in her house said to them : " I will protect you against the 
mob, but if they demand you in the name of the Prophet 
I must give you up to them." 

When the massacre was over, and order restored, the 
authorities demanded that every Armenian in Constanti- 
nople employed as a clerk, custom-house officer, railroad 
employ^, porter, or even as house servant, should be 
deprived of employment, and sent out of the capital. The 
plan in the cities seems to have been to kill within a 
limited period as many Armenians as possible, especially 
the men of business ; and if their families were spared, to 
leave them destitute. 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA l8l 

I do not care to tell any more of these horrors. Enough 
has been said. In the various books I have read concern- 
ing what look place in Armenia, the most interesting, the 
least sensational, and I should suppose the most trust- 
worthy, is "Through Armenia on Plorseback," by Mr. 
George II. Hepworth, a clergyman, though on his title- 
page he does not add Reverend to his name. He takes 
pains to do justice to^he character of the Turkish people ; 
his book neither extenuates crimes, nor sets down facts in 
malice. His style somewhat resembles that of George 
Borrow, which is giving his book high praise. If my 
readers would wish to know more about Armenia and its 
tragedies, I commend it to them. 

In one very important matter Sultan Abdul Hamid finds 
himself in an anomalous and perplexing position. He is 
commonly spoken of as the Caliph, as well as the Padishah, 
which means the ruler of all kings. He knows that he 
is not legally a caliph according to Mohammedan law, 
though he has endeavored to exercise a caliph's authority. 
The word " caliph " means the vicar or successor of the 
Prophet. Only one direction is given for this succession 
in the Koran, which is that the Caliph must always be an 
Arab of the tribe of Koreish. Mohammed, though he had 
many wives, left no son. He predicted that the true 
Caliphate would continue after his death for only thirty 
years. " After that," he said, " there will be only powers 
established by force, by usurpation, and by tyranny." 

Just thirty years after the death of the Prophet the rule 
of the first four caliphs came to an end. These four were 
men of his own immediate family ; " true and perfect 
caliphs " they are called. After them came sixty-eight 
"imperfect" caliphs, who were not of the family of the 
Proi>het, but all were of the race of Koreish, who claimed 
to be a direct descendant from Abraham. 

In 15 17 Selim I., Sultan of the Ottomans, conquered 
Egypt and assumed the position of vicar or successor of 
the Prophet. He was of an alien race, in no way con- 
nected with the Prophet's lineage, or with the tribe of 



1 82 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Koreish. His only claim to the Caliphate was that when 
he conquered Egypt the shereef of Mecca presented him 
at Cairo with the keys of the Holy Cities, and the last 
Abbaside Caliph, Mohammed XH., made over to him his 
rights and titles. Since that time the successive Sultans 
have assumed the title of caliph, and the real caliphs have 
lived in obscurity in Egypt. The last of them died in 
1838. 

There had been a schism among Mohammedans touch- 
ing the Caliphate, ever since the death of the last of the 
four "perfect caliphs." For the Persians refused to accept 
the authority of the " imperfect caliphs," though these were 
of the tribe of Koreish. But when Ottoman sultans assumed. 
the authority of caliphs, and took the title and the functions 
of Imaum-ul-Muslimin, or Commtoder of the Faithful, the 
Arabs, the Mohammedans of India, of the Soudan, and 
of Morocco, repudiated his authority. Even the Moham- 
medan doctors in Turkey, when called upon to bring argu- 
ments to establish Sultan SeHm's right to the Caliphate, could 
only plead that '•' sovereign power must be held to reside in 
the person of him who is the strongest, who is the actual 
ruler, and whose right to command rests on the power of 
his armies." 

According to the Koran, " All Moslems ought to be 
governed by an Imaum [the Imaum-ul-Muslimin]. His 
authority is absolute and embraces everything. All are 
bound to submit to him. No country can render sub- 
mission to any other." But the law goes on to say that the 
Imaum-ul-Muslimin must be of the family of Koreish. 

In spite of this defect in his title as caliph, Abdul 
Hamid, soon after his accession, attempted to carry out 
the policy he had most at heart, which was to assert himself 
as caliph, as Imaum-ul-Muslimin, and to sacrifice all other 
interests to those of his religion. He resolved to rally 
the Mohammedan world around the throne of Othman. 
Choosing the path of faith rather than that of reason, he 
sent agents throughout the Mohammedan world, inviting 
the principal imaums to hold a conference with him at Con- 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 83 

stantinople. He awakened their enthusiasm for a revival 
of energy in the Moslem faith \ but the Arabs, the Persians, 
the tribes in the interior of Africa, the Mohammedans of 
India, and the Sultan of Morocco could not be brought to 
acknowledge the usurper, the man of alien race, — a 
race unknown to the Arabian Prophet, — as their spiritual 
head and the Commander of the Faithful. The outcome 
of the convention must have been no small disappointment 
to Abdul Hamid, but he has never given up his plan. His 
Turkish subjects are only a minority in the Mohammedan 
world. He has his agents at work among all Moham- 
medans, especially in the sultanates of Central Africa, where 
it seems possible to stir up Mohammedan negroes against 
the Arabs. For the Arabs are all ready to assert the right 
of their own race to the Caliphate, and if opportunity offer, 
to defend it against the Sultan. Only recently a strong 
Turkish military expedition has been sent through Tripoli, 
the Sultan's last remaining African possession, to the 
southern frontier of Fezzan, to back up the Sultan's claim 
to suzerainty as caliph over Wadai. We shall hear more 
of it when this policy comes into collision with French 
interests. Wadai acknowledges Senoussi (son of the first 
Senoussi of Jaboub) as its spiritual head, and as the Mahdi. 
This man is lineally descended from Fatima, the Prophet's 
daughter, and has therefore the most important qualifica- 
tion for the Caliphate. Whether Abdullah Ahmed, the 
late Mahdi of the Soudan, was connected with the Arab 
tribe of Koreish, I cannot say. For years Turkey has been 
silently but strenuously combating French influence in 
North Africa. But of this, in another chapter, I may have 
more to tell. 

In the autumn of 1898 the active Kaiser planned a visit 
to Constantinople and a pilgrimage to Palestine. The 
Turko-Grecian war was over. Turkey had received sym- 
pathy and assistance from Germany in the successful con- 
duct of that war, though Sophia, the wife of the Crown 
Prince Constantine, was the Kaiser's sister. There were 
few German officers at the front in command of Turkish 



1 84 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

regiments, but it was known that Germany had lent the 
Turkish War Office great assistance in administrative organi- 
zation. The Sultan was therefore well disposed to receive 
Emperor William with due honors, and to further plans for 
German enterprise in Asia Minor, to promote which was 
one of the objects of the Kaiser's journey. 

A long train of German notables accompanied the 
Emperor. His wife, her court ladies, the household 
officials, his imperial Majesty's military entourage, and 
private attendants, in all, about one hundred persons. The 
clergy of Germany were invited to be present at the conse- 
cration of the German Lutheran Church in Jerusalem, and 
to be the guests of the Emperor while in the Holy City. 

The Sultan received the Kaiser with great pomp and 
cordiality, and the two potentates (if I may use a homely 
phrase) at once took a great fancy to each other. The 
Sultan has always a personal charm for those who approach 
him, and at the moment of the Emperor's visit, his hopes 
and spirits had been revived by the issue of the Greek 
war and European admiration of the excellent conduct 
of his soldiers. The Emperor William, many-sided, well- 
informed, and very clever, has also the power of making in 
personal intercourse a most agreeable impression. The 
Sultan, after the Oriental custom, made valuable gifts to 
his guest. 

From Constantinople the imperial pilgrims went by the 
Sea of Marmora, the Dardanelles, the ^gean, and the Medi- 
terranean in the Levant to Hepha, where they were received 
by young German ladies, all robed in white and adorned 
with the favorite flowers of the Empress, Marshal Niel roses 
and lilies of the valley. 

On October 31, the solemn consecration of the German 
church at Jerusalem took place. The foundation stone had 
been laid by the father of the Emperor, when Crown Prince 
Frederick. 

For centuries the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Arme- 
nian churches have been powerful in Palestine, politically, 
rather than as missionaries, but Protestants had had no 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 85 

place among them until the beginning of the nineteenth 
century. America led the way ; then England and Prussia 
jointly appointed a bishop in Jerusalem, to be chosen by 
them alternately. The High Church party in England op- 
posed this arrangement, as putting bishops who had the"" 
Apostolic Succession on a par with Lutherans. We may 
read much about the controversy in Bishop Stanley's Life of 
Dr. Arnold. 

The German church, called the Church of the Saviour, 
now lifts its magnificent spire higher than all the surround- 
ing domes. 

After the ceremony of consecration, the Emperor and his 
party made a tour of three weeks in Palestine and Syria, visit- 
ing the places of greatest interest, living in tents, and escorted 
by Turkish soldiers, their transport and commissariat being 
cared for by the resourceful Cook, the man most experi- 
enced in such matters. The ladies were very much worn 
out by the haste with which they travelled, and, for some 
reason never explained to the public, the Kaiser deter- 
mined not to go to Spain, though at first he had planned to 
visit the Queen Regent and pass the Straits of Gibraltar. 
The party disembarked at Trieste and proceeded by rail to 
Berlin, where they arrived after six weeks' absence. 

I have said that one object of the imperial journey was 
to obtain concessions for railroads in Asia Minor. A great 
deal of German capital has been invested in that country. 
German villages are scattered here and there in Palestine 
and Syria, and, notwithstanding the depletion of the Turkish 
treasury, large sums have been given by the Government to 
facilitate the extension of a line of railroad to Bagdad, which 
is greatly desired by the Sultan. 

The construction of these railroads cannot but tend to 
Turkey's economical development, and, as a writer in 
" Blackwood " says, " If this desirable result is to be brought 
about under German inspiration, by all means let it have 
full and free scope. On political and humanitarian consid- 
erations it deserves the cordial and unselfish support of 
England." 



1 86 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The same writer goes on to say : — 

" In a few lines we may sum up the grouping of the six Great 
Powers in regard to Turkey : Russia never losing sight of, 
although temporarily suspending, her traditional policy of gravi- 
tating toward Constantinople ; and France, in gratitude to the 
Power which rescued her from a depressing isolation, supporting 
Russia with a half-hearted enthusiasm. On the other hand, we 
see Germany espousing tlie cause of Turkey, partly from the 
personal sympathy of its Emperor for the Sultan, but mainly in 
view of its large stake in the preservation of the Ottoman 
Empire ; and England, Austria, and Italy co-operating with 
Germany." 

[ do not like to close this chapter without allowing Abdul 
Hamid to speak for himself, which he did in a semi-official 
interview with Mr. Terrell, the United States Ambassador at 
Constantinople, in March, 1897, when he especially desired 
that what he said should be repeated to the American public. 
This was done in an article in the " Century Magazine " 
(November, 1897). I think the command " not to bear false 
witness " applies as much to those who would write history 
as to intercourse in domestic life. I therefore give the Sul- 
tan's own words. My readers may credit him, as they think 
best, with either duplicity or sincerity. 

The Sultan began by saying that those who knew him per- 
sonally could never believe him to be cruel. He then spoke 
of the position of the Armenians in his Empire. As the 
Ottoman race was a people of war, commerce, finance, and 
the industrial arts had naturally fallen into the hands of the 
Armenians, who had prospered and received consideration 
under Mohammedan rule for four hundred years. Their re- 
ligion was tolerated and themselves respected. " How could 
Mohammedans," he said, " murder Armenians only on ac- 
count of their religion, when the Koran prohibits cruelty and 
requires that all men who believe in God shall be protected 
except during war? One of my ancestors, Selim I., once 
thought that his empire would be stronger if all his subjects 
professed the same religion. The Sheikh-ul-Islam was asked 
if it would be lawful for him to kill all Christians who refused 



THE SULTAN AND ARMENIA 1 87 

to be converted to Islam. The Sheikh issued 2, fetva, in 
which he answered that it would not be lawful, and that 
Christians who were peaceable must be protected." 

The Sultan then went on to enlarge on the number of 
Armenians he and his father had favored and protected, 
and gave a long list to Mr. Terrell of Armenians who had 
received money and court patronage. 

Mr. Terrell alluded to the report sent home by the aged 
missionary, the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin, to the effect that the 
Hunchagists had planned to commit outrages on Turks in 
the Eastern provinces, in the hope that atrocities committed 
by way of retaliation might rouse the sympathy of Europe 
and lead to intervention. 

Lastly, the Sultan spoke with pleasure of the efforts made 
by Mr. Terrell to introduce the cultivation of sweet potatoes 
into Syria and Mesopotamia. " To be good to one's fellow- 
man," he said, "is the best religion. The Prophet once 
said that if a man is so mean to himself that he gets drunk, 
and like a hog sleeps by his liquor and cannot get away, 
it shall be forgiven if he repents, but he who wilfully breaks 
the heart of a fellow-man may never be forgiven." 

Again I say — poor Sultan ! No man in Europe prob- 
ably needs more pity. His empire is honeycombed with 
secret societies, his treasury is exhausted, his creditors are 
importunate, and piteous cries come up from his people, 
complaining of unjust exactions by his tax-gatherers, and 
oppression by high officials. Above all this, of the six 
Powers, five at least are to be feared. In Paris young 
Turkey publishes several newspapers in French and Turk- 
ish, and it has several organized revolutionary committees. 
From time to time in his own palace there are shocks 
and counter shocks of revolutionary feeling. Rumors of a 
renewal of agitation for the restoration of the charter 
granted in 1878, dead and inoperative for two and twenty 
years, from time to time agitate Abdul Hamid. 

A few years since, Kiamil Pasha, who had ideas of pro- 
gress, was appointed Grand Vizier at the instance of the 
English Ambassador, but he was soon deposed, and has 



1 88 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

since been sent into exile in Tripoli. Thence, very 
recently, he escaped on board an English vessel, believ- 
ing himself to have reason to fear the fate of Midhat 
Pasha. The offence for which he was deprived of his 
high office was his opinion, too openly expressed, that the 
dominant influence in the government of Turkey ought to 
be that of the ministers at the Porte, rather than that of 
palace officials. 

The wild and wicked incursion into the Ottoman Bank 
at Constantinople, of which I have told in this chapter, has 
embarrassed the party of reform, and may have set back 
its cause for a generation. The man who planned it (and 
was killed in the Bank) had proposed to his colleagues to 
burn the whole of Stamboul, a quarter of Constantinople 
which is built of wood. " It would have been even an easier 
thing," one of his adherents laughingly asserted, when he 
and his fellow-conspirators were safe in Geneva, " than to 
take the Ottoman Bank. Oh, yes, a thousand times 
easier ! " 



CHAPTER V 

CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 

/^RETE, or Candia, as the island was called when I 
^^ learned geography, attracted little attention from 
Western Europe during the Dark and Middle Ages. 
Here and there some name or prominent event looms 
through the mist that shadows its history. We see 
Idomeneus and Meriones, his friend and charioteer, with the 
Cretan contingent, acting as allies with the Greeks at the 
siege of Troy, We know that in the wars waged between 
Syria and Egypt, after the dismemberment of the empire of 
Alexander, Cretan mercenaries were employed by both 
belligerents, and played a large part in the theatre of war. 

The next thing that the "general reader" learns about 
Crete is the bad character given to its inhabitants by Saint 
Paul, who, writing to Titus, the first Christian bishop on the 
island, and quoting some Greek author, says : " The Cretans 
are always hars, evil beasts, lazy and gluttonous [" slow 
bellies "]. This witness is true." 

This evil reputation, whether just or unjust, has adhered 
to the inhabitants of Crete to the present day. Only a 
few weeks since I took up a magazine with an article which 
proved to be about Crete. It was headed " Among the 
Liars," and I fancied I was about to read something of the 
Arabs, who have a legend that Sheitan once carried on" his 
back a bag of lies for distribution to his followers in many 
lands ; but passing through one of the provinces of North 
Africa, a rent came in the bag, and a large proportion of 
the lies dropped out among the Arabs.^ If this was, indeed, 

1 Since the days of " wily Ulysses " men have been found to brag 
of their proficiency in lying. I heard one of my own domestic 
servants, a bright mulatto woman, boasting one day that her father 
was the champion liar of the county in Maryland to which he 
belonged ! 



190 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the character of Cretans, their proficiency may have been 
reinforced when the Arabs in the ninth century settled 
among them, and, taking advantage of the many harbors 
along their coast, made the island a nest of pirates. 

Trickery and unveracity is, however, characteristic of all 
the Levantine peoples, and the habitual untruthfulness of 
Greek Christians has strengthened the prejudice of Mussul- 
mans against their religion. In the Levant the trader and 
the traveller find common honesty only among the Turkish 
people. My father told me that it was so in his day, and 
in the old Napoleonic wars he spent nearly ten years of his 
life on the Mediterranean. All modern travellers say the 
same thing, always excepting the utterances of the Turkish 
Government in matters of diplomacy, and the invariable 
failure of those in authority to keep promises of protection 
to the Christians wrung from them by the allied Powers, 
The world, as the Turk views it, consists only of two classes : 
Mohammedans, who are eventually to triumph, by the bless- 
ing of God, over our so-called Christian civilization, and 
non-Mohammedans, who by conversion, tribute, or the sword 
are in the end to bow their necks to Islam. The Moham- 
medans by divine right are a privileged people, and 
unbelievers, so long as they live side by side with them, 
are to be treated, if unpopular or refractory, like the people 
of Armenia. We hear little more of Crete until 961, more 
than one hundred years before the first crusade, when it 
was conquered from the Arabs by a Byzantine general and 
restored to the Greek Emperor. 

When the Latins took possession of Constantinople, 
1204, Crete fell to the share of Boniface, Marquis of 
Monferrat, successor to that Conrad of Monferrat who 
figures in Scott's " Talisman." 

Boniface sold it to the Venetians. The rule of the 
Venetian nobles is said to have been worse than the sub- 
sequent rule of the Turks, for it was complicated by 
the cruelties of the Inquisition. Indeed, the history of 
the island as far back as it can be discerned contains 
perpetual records of revolts, riots, feuds, massacres, and 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 191 

bloody wars. The Turks attempted no conquest of Crete 
until 1645 ; this they accomplished by a twenty-four years' 
war, after which little was known of the affairs of the island 
until the outbreak of the Greek revolution in 1820, save 
that travellers occasionally spoke of it as the worst gov- 
erned province in the Turkish dominions. Thousands of 
its Christian inhabitants apostatized in order to have some 
share in its local administration, and from these renegades 
are descended the present Mussulmans of Crete, whose 
bloody feuds with Christian Cretans have made most of 
the present troubles. 

The Sphakiots, a body of Cretan mountaineers, "are," 
says a recent traveller, " a splendid race, and have often 
fought for, and always preserved their liberty. They are 
tall, fair-haired, cheerful ruffians, in face not unlike the 
typical native of the eastern counties in England.^ Every 
man carries a rifle and is always prepared to render a 
good account with it." They took possession of almost 
inaccessible mountains in the interior of Crete, and not 
only defeated Turkish armies, but shut up the Turks in 
their fortified cities. 

When in 1829 the independence of Greece was acknowl- 
edged by the European Powers, Crete earnestly desired to 
be united to the new kingdom, or at least to share the 
privileges secured to Samos, whose inhabitants have since 
lived prosperous and happy. But England, Russia, and 
France consigned her to the powerful Viceroy of Egypt, 
Mehemet Ali. 

In 1840, when disputes in the East broke up the entente 
cordiale between France and England, Crete was given 
back to the Sultan. Again she protested, asserted her de- 
sire to be united to Greece, and attempted a revolution. 

There was a rising in Crete in 1859, another in 1867, 
when Omar Pasha with a large force was sent to restore 

1 There is a large admixture of old Norse (or Danish) blood 
among the natives of the eastern counties. Can the Sphakiots be 
descended from some party of Norse rovers wrecked upon their 
island .'' 



192 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

order in the island, and was twice defeated by the Sphakiots, 
at one time with a loss of twenty thousand men ; and the 
island may be said to have been for sixty years in a chronic 
state of revolution. 

In November, 1878, Turkey, under pressure from the 
Powers, granted a charter of reforms, called the Pact of 
Halepa. It was to force the Turkish Government to carry 
out these reforms that the Cretans kept up perpetual 
warfare. 

In 1896 began the same racial murders that had deso- 
lated Armenia. The Governor of Crete at that time was 
a Greek Christian, appointed, ostensibly, to fulfil the prom- 
ises made to the European Powers ; but the Turkish Gov- 
ernment frustrated all his efforts to maintain peace by 
refusing him money to pay the gendarmerie, while his au- 
thority was systematically set at nought by Turkish army 
officers. At length he resigned, and even the Mohamme- 
dans regretted his departure. 

After that things went from bad to worse. The Porte 
sent a military governor to suppress the revolution. Many 
Mohammedans were murdered and their farms laid waste 
by guerilla bands of the fierce Sphakiots, who played much 
the same part in Crete that the Kurdish clans did in 
Armenia. 

The Convention of Halepa had been framed to secure 
justice, toleration, equitable taxation, and some share in 
the government to Christians, but its conditions were never 
carried out. Cretan Christians demanded the fulfilment of 
this agreement, but the Turkish Government desired to 
quell insurrection in the island, not by concessions, but by 
force. 

The consuls in Crete telegraphed to their governments 
that they must beware how they guaranteed the fulfilment 
of any Turkish promises. Some of them even requested 
the presence of warships in Cretan waters. A massacre 
took place in the city of Canea. Greece was greatly 
excited, crowds of Cretan fugitives sought refuge in Athens, 
while hundreds of Mohammedan orphans found asylums 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 93 

and kind treatment in Constantinople. Loud was the 
public outcry in Athens that the Greek Government must 
rouse itself to help the Cretans, and there seemed reason 
to dread a popular outbreak if the voice of the people were 
not heard. 

The Austrian Ambassador wrote to his Government, 
" The blame for the present situation lies entirely with the 
Turks themselves, and it will be impossible for Greece to 
stand aloof if acts of savagery take place in the island." 
The British consul, Mr. (now Sir Alfred) Biliotti, telegraphed 
to Lord Salisbury, " Pillage and fire mark the passage of 
the Turkish troops." By which he probably meant the 
Bashi-bazouks, a force of irregulars, recruited from among 
the Mohammedan Cretans, for other authorities speak well 
of the discipline and good conduct of the Turkish soldiers 
of the regular army. 

Prince Lobanoff, the Russian Foreign Minister, in- 
duced Austria to propose to the other Powers a blockade 
to prevent arms and volunteers being imported from Greece 
to help the insurgents. But Lord Salisbury objected, saying 
that this would be intervening in opposition to Cretan 
insurgents, who had very solid grievances to complain of; 
he also added that ** after what had occurred during the 
winter in Armenia, it would be difficult to count on the 
moderation or clemency with which the Turkish Govern- 
ment would be likely to use any victory it might achieve, 
and her Majesty's Government therefore shrank from tak- 
ing part by material intervention in the work of restrain- 
ing the activity of the Cretans." A strict blockade of the 
coast of Crete was therefore given up. Nothing could 
be done, because no promises were binding on the Turk- 
ish Government, and foreign guarantees were therefore 
useless. 

In June, 1896, Berovitch Pasha, a Christian, was made 
Governor of Crete. The scheme of settlement he was to 
introduce was one of partial autonomy. A commissioner 
was to be appointed to reform the law courts, and another 
to reorganize the gendarmerie. Elections were to be held 

13 



194 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

to send delegates to an assembly, and for a few weeks on 
the island there was a period of calm. The Christian 
deputies issued an appeal to both Christians and Mussul- 
mans. " Children of the same country, belonging to the 
same race," it said, " let the work of peace go on without 
strife." 

Christians who had fled to Greece began by thousands 
to return, but Mohammedans had taken possession of their 
farms, and disputes very naturally arose among them. 
However, there seems to have been a real desire in the 
minds of both parties to leave off fighting, because the olive 
crop that year was a very fine one, and prosperity they 
hoped would come with peace, though it was far from cer- 
tain that the promised reforms would be put in working 
order; for the new Christian governor found himself 
treated as a nobody. The Turkish officials received private 
orders from Constantinople. Word too was passed among 
the Mohammedans that they were to resist the reforms. 

In the summer of 1896 when the six Powers and a repre- 
sentative of the Sultan reached a settlement. Consul Biliotti 
wrote home that " both Christians and Mohammedans 
seemed happy to be led out of the untenable position in 
which they were placed," though he thought " more good- 
will towards the proposed settlement was to be expected 
of the Mohammedans than of the Christians, in carrying 
out the proposed organization." 

Hardly was this written when a massacre took place near 
Canea of Christian villagers, who had returned to their 
homes on an assurance that they would enjoy security 
and protection. 

Next came murders, atrocities, and the burning of vil- 
lages. Christians sought refuge in the mountains, Moham- 
medans in cities on the coast, and the European Powers 
sent their warships to \Vatch events. Before long there 
was another massacre in Canea, the city was set on fire, 
and the warships sent their fire-engines to extinguish it. 
The Christians in Canea crowded on board the foreign 
vessels, and not one Christian was left in the city. 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 95 

All over the island the Mohammedans were m arms. 
The day after the assembly met, it voted for the annexation 
of the island to Greece. The Greek flag was hoisted, and 
Cretan Christians took an oath of allegiance to King George. 
The population of Athens was roused to a frenzy of enthu- 
siasm. It insisted that its king must send troops to help the 
Cretan Christians. Accordingly, Colonel Vassos with four 
battalions was despatched to raise the Greek flag over the 
island. The promised autonomy had never been carried 
out ; the scheme had broken down ; but the Powers pro- 
fessed themselves much displeased that Greece should 
interfere to mar their plans. Colonel Vassos, however, 
landed his men successfully. 

It seemed hard that Christian Powers should treat as 
enemies a Greek force that had come to Crete to assist 
fellow Christians, but the Peace of Europe, which was of 
more importance to the world than satisfying the aspira- 
tions of a third-rate power, was involved in the settlement of 
the Cretan question. There was indeed no reason to think 
that Greece, unquiet herself, and financially embarrassed, 
would be able effectively to restore order in what M. de 
Pressens^ calls " this Ireland of the ^gean Sea, with its 
fierce racial and religious conflicts, and with a Moham- 
medan minority exposed to the hate and vengeance of 
a Christian majority, for after 1896 the massacres in 
Crete were not of but by Christians ; not by but of 
Mohammedans." 

The six Great Powers, unwilling to be befooled and defied 
by " a small state, their ward and their spoiled child," in- 
sisted that Greece must withdraw her troops from the 
island, and when the Greek flag was flaunted in the face 
of their warships from heights around Canea, the hills and 
blockhouses from which it floated were shelled. "This," 
said Mr. Gladstone to his countrymen, " was filling up our 
measure of dishonor." 

Lord Salisbury then resolved to try another scheme of 
pacification and autonomy. Crete was to remain under 
the nominal suzerainty of the Sultan, but to have a Christian 



196 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Governor-General, and a popular Assembly, entirely inde- 
pendent of Constantinople. The Greek soldiers were to 
be withdrawn, but the regular soldiers of the Sultan might 
remain to act as a military police until order was restored 
upon the island. Greece was notified that the Powers 
would not consent to her annexation of Crete. But 
Colonel Vassos was not recalled until the Greeks had ex- 
perienced reverses in the war that broke out with Turkey, 
on the northern frontier of Greece. By that time most of 
the Greek officers in Crete had resigned their commissions, 
to go to the front as volunteers. 

Early in 1897 the Mohammedan Cretan population, driven 
from their farms and olive orchards, were shut up in two or 
three fortified cities, round each of which a cordon was 
drawn, which neither they nor their flocks could pass 
without forfeiting international protection. The Christians, 
for the most part, found refuge in the mountains. The 
Mohammedans, imprisoned in the cities, suffered severely 
from privation, for by this time the Cretan coast was 
blockaded, and supplies of provisions were cut off from 
them, as well as arms and ammunition from the Christians. 
Disputes went on between the Porte and the admirals con- 
cerning the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the island, 
and these might have continued longer, had not an attack 
been made by Cretan Mohammedans and Cretan Bashi- 
bazouks upon some English marines, sent by Admiral Noel 
to Candia to carry out a scheme appointing a Cretan 
to collect the agricultural taxes. The killing of British 
marines brought matters to a crisis. A party of the Sea- 
forth Highlanders was landed to restore order, of whom 
an officer and several men were killed. 

It became evident that " peace and prosperity, truth and 
justice, religion and piety," could not be established on the 
island so long as Turkish garrisons remained in the towns. 
England, having been attacked in the person of her soldiers 
and marines, asserted her right to take the foremost part 
in settling vexed questions concerning Crete at Constanti- 
nople. Up to that time the dissentient powers had been 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 97 

Germany and Russia, both, strange to say, connected by 
marriage with the royal family of Greece. 

Finally it was arranged that Turkey should renounce all 
right to rule in Crete, retaining only a nominal suzerainty. 
The Turkish troops were embarked, and the Cretan Mo- 
hammedan Bashi-bazouks were disarmed, giving up their 
weapons to the Turkish soldiers. 

Several rulers were proposed for Crete. England said 
she would accept any, provided he were not an English- 
man or a Turk. A Dane was suggested, a native of Lux- 
embourg, and a Montenegrin prince ; but Russia, much to 
the surprise of the other Powers, proposed Prince George, 
the second son of the King of Greece, the companion 
of the Emperor (when Czarevich) upon his travels, and 
his defender when the insane Japanese fanatic attacked 
him in the street of Otzu. The Porte objected for some 
time to this choice, saying that the appointment of Prince 
George would be only preliminary to the annexation of 
Crete to Greece. Prince George renounced his claim of 
succession to the throne of his father, and at last the mat- 
ter was satisfactorily arranged. 

Very satisfactory it has proved thus far. " Crete, torn 
for twenty-five years by civil war, foreign conquest, and 
oppression, has suddenly attained liberty and good govern- 
ment under a ruler of her own race and language." 

The autonomy scheme of Lord Salisbury was not popular 
in Crete at first ; so many schemes of autonomy that had 
been made had come to nothing. The Mohammedans 
imagined that autonomy meant the rule of the Christians 
and the loss of their own privileged position. They also 
dreaded that the Christians when in power would call them 
to account for past atrocities. 

After a long period of suspense, caused by the inaction 
and indecision of the Great Powers, real autonomy was 
established in Crete. The Christians, about five-sevenths 
of the population, had shut up the Mussulmans in the 
maritime cities, and, owing to the blockade by the navies of 
Europe, they were wofully short of supplies. Moham- 



198 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

medan villages had been burned by the insurgents, and 
Christian villages with their olive orchards had suffered 
wholesale destruction. 

Edhem Pasha, who had been made Turkish Governor of 
Crete, after the war in Thessaly, had promptly disavowed 
the attack made at Candia on British troops. But Eng- 
land refused to be satisfied until Turkish soldiers were 
withdrawn from the island. This took place accordingly, 
and Prince George at last with the consent of Turkey 
was made High Commissioner of the Four Powers in 
Crete. This meant that he was invested with regal au- 
thority for three years and that disputes between the 
Powers were suspended. 

The enthusiasm of the Cretans knew no bounds when on 
Dec. 21, 1898, Prince George entered Canea. His work 
has been to build up a civilized state from ruins. Many 
persons thought him wholly unqualified for such a task, but 
the Sphakiots, those warlike mountaineers, whom no author- 
ity had been able to tame for half a century, submitted at 
once to the young Greek ruler. The Mussulmans were 
less amenable, but Prince George has done his best to 
reconcile them to the new state of things ; agents, however, 
from Constantinople at first actively opposed his plans 
and induced large numbers of Moslem peasants to emi- 
grate rather than submit to his authority. Seventy thou- 
sand Cretan Moslems, misled as to the intentions of their 
ruler, are said to have emigrated to Asia Minor. Some, 
however, soon became weary of exile, and desired to 
return to their homes. 

The town Mussulmans and the Turkish landed propri- 
etors have now become enthusiastic supporters of the Prince 
and his government. 

Recently the Queen of Greece (a Grand Duchess of 
Russia) paid a visit to her son, and increased his popular- 
ity among Moslems of distinction by returning in person 
all the visits she received from the ladies of their harems. 
The Prince too from time to time pays visits to the 
mosques, and his Secretary of State (or " Counsellor," as 




PRINCE GEORGE OF CRETE. 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 1 99 

he is called) is a Mohammedan, who has charge of the 
Public Safety and of the gendarmerie. 

Crete has been provided with a Constitution and with 
a popular Assembly, which, while it alone can pass laws, 
impose taxes, and regulate public expenditure, cannot 
interfere with the executive. The Prince has a council of 
ministers through whom he governs. Though he exercises 
kingly, or presidential power, his position, style, and title 
are somewhat anomalous. He is the High Commissioner 
of the Four Powers. His appointment will expire at the 
close of 1 90 1 ; but his administration has been so satisfac- 
tory that there can, it is thought, be little doubt of its 
renewal. In a recent article in the " Nation," signed by 
a Greek name, are the following remarks, which seem worth 
consideration. 

"The unusuallv ample power given to the Prince, and the 
limitation of the national representation to mere legislation, 
were a necessity, in the case of a passionate and excitable race 
of political infants, even if Crete were not materially ruined by 
long centuries of anarchy and misrule. In Greece proper the 
premature introduction of parliamentary government has en- 
gendered a sad compound of political jobbery and demagogue 
rule. Universal suffrage has led to the utter prostitution of 
parliamentary institutions. Even worse were the results of a 
similar regime in Crete, for eleven years, under the Halepa 
Convention of 1878. Not only was autonomy but an ignoble 
scramble for the sweets of office, but the minority habitually 
conspired against the majority with the Turkish Governor- 
General, and against the latter with his personal enemies at 
Constantinople, and the majority invariably drove the minority 
out of the towns and plains into the mountains by force of arms. 
In the absence, therefore, of the self-restraint indispensable to 
the working of parliamentary institutions, and with so much 
waiting to be done for the country's material and social regen- 
eration, Crete needs a strong central government, independent 
of popular whims, passions, and imperfections, for some time to 
come." ^ 

The war in Thessaly will probably be known in history as 
the Thirty Days' War, for actual hostilities lasted only from 

1 "The Nation," Nov. 23, 1899. 



200 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

April i6 to May i8, 1897. It was undertaken against what 
we might call the absolute commands of the six Powers, — 
England, Germany, Russia, Austria, France, and Italy, who 
had undertaken, with exasperating diplomatic deliberation, 
to settle the affairs of Turkey, Greece, and the Cretan 
question. 

Both parties had been actively making preparations for a 
fight. Turkey had mobilized eighty-two thousand men, prin- 
cipally Redifs, or Reservists, drawn from Asia Minor. Greece 
had called upon all Greeks in foreign countries to join her 
standards ; a large number of them sailed from New York ; 
a body of Garibaldian red-shirts, whom the liberation of 
Italy had thrown out of employ, came, under the command 
of Ricciotti Garibaldi ; and enthusiasts from every part of 
the world lent Greece, if not their support, at least their 
cordial sympathy. The opinion of the civilized world, and 
that of the Greeks themselves, according to G. W. Steevens, 
was as follows : — 

" That the Turkish army was a mob of starving, half-naked, 
diseased, disorderly ruffians, who could never stand a day before 
the forces of civilized Greece. It seems incredible now, but it is 
indisputable, that thousands of Europeans, who could talk glibly 
of Japan and China, believed that the Turks would have no 
chance against the Greeks. The Greeks were glad enough to 
accept this opinion. Meantime the Turks were arming. The 
Government issued daily statements of the number of troops that 
had gone up to the front, but these statements were not believed 
by the general public, as no foreigner was allowed to go with 
them and see them ; so the newspaper reports gave the impres- 
sion that there were more troops on paper statements from the 
war office than there were facing the enemy. As a matter of fact, 
however, the statements from Constantinople were true, and the 
men very decently cared for. The mobilization worked slowly, — 
but it worked. No doubt it would have been improved on in Ger- 
many, but it was well in advance of anything Turkey had done 
before. The thanks for that were due to the new direct railway 
from Constantinople to Salonica. Had the Sultan kept his fleet 
in any order, this line could have been dispensed with. But the 
Greek fleet, trumpery as it was, commanded the Archipelago, 
and neither men nor stores could be sent bv sea. So that but 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 20I 

for the Constantinople-Salonica line the Asiatic reserves could 
not have been got to the front for weeks and weeks." 

The war was brought on by the Ethnike Hetairia, that 
revolutionary society which organizes agitation wherever 
there are Greeks to be influenced by its committees. The 
population at Athens had been growing very restive in view 
of the dilatory action (or non-action) of the Powers in 
settling the affairs of Crete ; and when the six Powers per- 
emptorily forbade the annexation of that island to Greece, 
blockaded its coast that Greece might send no troops or 
food or ammunition to the insurgents, — nay, even fired on 
Greek flags when a body of insurgents flaunted them in 
the face of the allied squadron, — the people were not to 
be restrained. They threatened revolution and the de- 
thronement of King George, unless he would defy all Eu- 
rope and declare war against the Turks. At last he placed 
himself at the head of the national movement, under dread 
of losing his crown. 

When the frontier of Greece was settled in 1830, Thes- 
saly and Epirus were not given to the new-made kingdom. 
At Berlin, when the Congress in 1878 was engaged in set- 
tling the affairs of Eastern Europe, Greece conceived her- 
self to have secured a promise that these provinces, to- 
gether with Macedonia, should be taken from Turkey and 
given to her. The Powers had either not meant to make 
this promise, or refused to carry it out. But the importu- 
nity of Greece became so great that in 188 1, by especial 
treaty, Thessaly was made over to Greece, in hopes of pre- 
venting the incursion of Greek brigands into Turkish terri- 
tory. The Powers in 1897 notified Turks and Greeks that, 
whichever should begin the war (undertaken against their 
advice and approval) should gain nothing by success. 

The Greeks counted on the prestige of the Grecian name 
and on the bitter feeling roused against the Sultan by the 
Armenian massacres. They looked for moral support from 
Christendom. They did not believe that popular opinion 
in Christian countries would suffer Turks to invade their 
land, to massacre, to pillage and destroy them, without 



202 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

giving them assistance. They called upon all sons of 
Greece to rally to the defence of their once glorious 
country, regardless of the repeated declarations of the 
Powers, that the settlement of the Cretan question was an 
international affair, which they intended to keep in their 
own hands. Early in the spring of 1897, Greek troops 
were hurried to the frontier, the Turks stationed an army 
corps at Salonica, and both moved men up to the moun- 
tains which formed the Greco-Turkish frontier. Edhem 
Pasha, who was made commander-in-chief of the Turkish 
army, was a good man and an excellent general, except 
that he had no "push," — that restless activity so conspic- 
uous in Christian civilization, so opposed to that of the 
Orient. A Turkish proverb, " Deliberation is of God, haste 
is of the devil," was conspicuously illustrated in Edhem's 
strategy. 

English and American newspapers sent their correspond- 
ents to the seat of war. Richard Harding Davis was among 
those who joined the Greeks ; while with the Turks were, 
amongst others, G. VV. Steevens and Bennett Burleigh. 
Each of these gentlemen has published in book-form his 
experience and his impressions. 

The Turkish correspondents rendezvoused at Salonica, 
described by them as a city of Spanish Jews, the chief part 
of its inhabitants speaking the old tongue that their fore- 
fathers brought with them when expelled from Spain by 
Ferdinand and Isabella and the Inquisition. Salonica is 
the city that Austria desires (and expects) to acquire when 
any fresh partition of the territories of Turkey shall be 
found advisable. 

While the correspondents were growing weary of inaction 
at Salonica, they employed themselves in wondering at the 
strange efficiency of the Turkish transport service. Every- 
thing brought from Constantinople by rail was carried to 
the front on the backs of little ponies, which in long lines 
crawled over mountains and crossed the dry beds of water- 
courses, bearing boxes of ammunition, and biscuit, forage, 
and stores of all kinds for the supply of an army of fifty 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 203 

thousand men. The correspondents also visited the Turk- 
ish hospital, where they found cleanliness and good order. 
On its outside was a clock with an inscription saying it had 
been presented by the English Government in acknowledg- 
ment of the skill and kindness there shown to British sailors 
attacked by small-pox. 

At last the correspondents were allowed to go to the 
front by especial permit from Constantinople ; and soon 
after, March 28, 1897, came news of a raid of Greek brig- 
ands over the frontier. But the Turkish army lay inactive 
at the foot of the mountains that divide Macedonia from 
Thessaly, awaiting a telegram from Yildiz to say that the 
war was to begin. The headquarters of Edhem Pasha were 
at the little town of Elissona at the foot of a long range of 
hills, on the summit of which was the frontier, with Greek 
and Turkish block-houses planted within sight of each 
other, in many instances the occupants of each provision- 
ally keeping up social intercourse en attendatit the decla- 
ration of war. 

There were two passes through the mountains from 
Macedonia to the plains of Thessaly, Meluna and Reveni. 
A second time a large band of Greek irregulars calling 
themselves bandits, but led by Greek officers in disguise, 
made a raid into Macedonia with no result. For such 
raids the Greek Government declared itself not responsible, 
and threw all the blame on the Ethnike Hetairia. 

On April 16, came orders to Edhem Pasha to assume the 
offensive. But the day before, the Greeks and Turks had 
disputed some neutral ground on the summit of a mountain 
called Analipsis, which dominated the Meluna Pass that led 
into Thessaly, near the base of Mount Olympus. In this 
struggle on the top of Mount Analipsis the Greeks gained 
the advantage. 

Edhem Pasha, having received permission to advance, 
commenced an artillery engagement to secure the Pass of 
Meluna. Riza Pasha was in command of the artillery, 
which was admirably served. The other Turkish generals 
of distinction were Neshat Pasha, Memdukh Pasha, Sey- 



204 L^ST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

foullah, Hamdi, and Hairi Pashas. Neshat had been bred 
in Constantinople, and he brought from Adrianople three 
admirably equipped, well-drilled battalions of young Al- 
banians. He had no idea how to lead them into action. 
When his chance came, he charged with them up a moun- 
tain on the top of which were Greek batteries and earth- 
works, while other batteries were so posted as to take them 
in flank. Nearly all the gallant little band perished at Do- 
moko. Memdukh Pasha was a veteran soldier, a splendid 
fighter, beloved and honored by his men, but he was as 
ignorant of the art of war as he was of reading, writing, and 
arithmetic. Hairi and Hamdi were dilatory and incapable 
officers, always behind time when their divisions were 
wanted, while SeyfouUah, who had been attached to the 
Turkish embassy at Athens, knew all the Greek officers and 
every foot of their country, and was of invaluable assistance 
to his commanders. 

Prince Constantine, the Greek Crown Prince, was com- 
mander-in-chief of the Greek army ; his staff was composed 
of gay young men, his friends, conspicuous in social circles 
in Athens. With him was his brother Nicholas. The 
" big, bluff, rollicking sea-dog, Prince George," was with a 
flotilla off the coast of Crete. 

The first day's fight at the Pass of Meluna broke off when 
the Turks had gained the summit of the hills that com- 
manded it, and night fell. In the morning they expected 
to resume the fight, but they found the Greeks were gone. 
They had fallen back on Larissa, the chief town of Thessaly. 

The Reveni Pass, where General Smolenski, and under 
him the best native general, Mavromichali, commanded 
the Greeks, was far better defended. There was fought 
what was called the battle of Mati, and the Greeks showed 
bravery ; but Smolenski's forces were ordered by the Crown 
Prince to fall back on Larissa, a movement indeed inevit- 
able, for their position was surrounded. 

The Turks poured by both passes into the plain of Thes- 
saly, advancing on Larissa. To their surprise they found it 
evacuated by all the Greek troops and most of the inhabit- 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 205 

ants, who had persuaded themselves that nothing but mas- 
sacre and pillage could be looked for from the Turks. 

Here is Steevens's description of how he entered Larissa, 
and his account of what he saw is confirmed by other 
writers : — 

"Never could there be seen more hopeless, handless, head- 
less confusion. Saddles and harness were strewn in heaps ; 
regimental papers flew before the wind in clouds. There was 
a knapsack, here a cap, there an artillery ammunition wagon 
hanging over the ditch, with the wheels broken and the traces 
cut; there — shame! — a little pile of cartridges. A soldier 
may throw away much, and there is still hope for him ; once he 
begins to throw away cartridges, there is none. And there by 
the roadside were a couple of dead Greeks, their swollen faces 
black with flies ; they had been killed by their comrades in the 
stampede. . . . 

" As the dominant impression of the town was the sweet smell 
of laburnums in the public places, of roses and sweet peas in 
the gardens, so the impression of the occupation of the town 
was fragrant and kindly. The entry of the Turkish troops 
into Larissa was the sweetest and most lovable thing I had 
seen during this week of war. That the Turkish army 
entering a town taken from the enemy should be a pleasant 
sight, should be almost a kind of Sunday-school treat, will be 
surprising information to many Englishmen. But I have eyes 
in my head, and I saw it." 

So did others, who tell us the same tale. The Greeks 
on their retreat had paused first at a small town called 
Tyrnavo, from which they fled in a panic on Friday 
night. The Crown Prince came that same evening into 
Larissa, but quitted it at two in the morning. Frightened 
troops, who had lost all order and discipline, came rushing 
tumultuously into the town all night, and the next morning 
were off for Pharsala, letting loose two hundred convicts 
from the prisons, and putting arms into their hands. 
There " had been smashing and stealing and shooting all 
Saturday night. On Sunday morning came the Turks. . . . 
Town and fortifications, guns and ammunition, clothing and 
provisions and fodder, — the Greeks had taken to their heels 
and left it all ! They had lost everything — including honor. 



206 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

They had not been beaten ; they had scuttled for their Uves 
after two days of desultory shell-fire, that, on their own 
showing, had killed next to nobody. . . . And their flight 
was headed by their commander-in-chief, the King's son ! " 
There were strange stories told of the way in which officers 
of his staff provided for his personal comfort and luxury 
in his railway carriage ; and even Greeks ventured on the 
taunt that a Greek peasant won the race from Marathon, 
and a Greek crown prince won the race when his army 
left Larissa for Pharsala. 

Not all Greeks shared, however, in this disgraceful flight. 
Twelve thousand men under Smolensk! had come through 
the Reveni Pass, and were stationed along the railroad 
south of Larissa which runs from Volo ^ to Pharsala. On 
this road, Velestino, forty miles from Larissa, though an 
insignificant village, was an important position. At Phar- 
sala, a big village rather than a town, about sixty thousand 
Greek soldiers were assembled ; the position was one well 
capable of defence. But Greek tactics in this war seemed 
to be to defeat the best-laid plans of Edhem Pasha, by 
running away just as he had made his preparations for 
a hard fight and a brilliant victory. The Greeks had 
an admirable position at Pharsala ; some said that " an 
army that was bent on fighting might have searched half 
Europe to find a better." Three times on different days 
the Turks attacked Velestino, and were repulsed, for 
Smolenski's men had not lost heart and had confi- 
dence in their commander. A fourth time, on May 4, 
they returned with ten thousand men and four field 
batteries. The second battle of Velestino lasted a day 
and a half. On May 5, the Crown Prince and his 
army retreated from Pharsala to Domoko, and ordered 
Smolensk! to rejoin him. Turks burned the village of 
Velestino as they passed through it on their march to 
Volo. "Smolenski's name had been more potent than five 
thousand men held in reserve. His seven thousand men 

1 Volo, the terminus of an important railroad, with its harbor 
occupied by Greek warships and those of the allies. 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 20/ 

for two days lay in the trenches repulsing attack after 
attack of the Turkish troops, suffocated with heat, chilled 
by sudden showers, and swept incessantly by shells and 
bullets, maintaining their position partly because they were 
good men and brave men, but largely because they knew 
that somewhere behind them a stout, bull-necked little 
man was sitting on a camp-stool, watching them through 
a pair of field-glasses." 

The retreat from Pharsala, at which place the Crown 
Prince was the first man to leave the army, was more 
orderly than the flight from Larissa. The Foreign Legion 
formed the rear-guard, keeping good order, stubbornly firing, 
and marching swiftly, but without breaking into a run. 

After this the Greeks under Sinolenski could not hold 
Velestino, and Velestino lost meant the loss of the railroad 
and of Volo. Most amusing is Mr, Steevens's account 
how he and three other correspondents, two Englishmen and 
an American, with a Turkish captain, one of the Sultan's 
aides-de-camp, two Albanian cavasses, and a stray cavalry 
trooper whom they picked up on the way, took the import- 
ant city of Volo. Absurd as the whole thing was, it h^d 
an element of tragedy, for Captain Nedjib Bey carried with 
him news of life or death to the inhabitants, and all of 
them expected the latter fate. The invaders on their way 
met a deputation from the foreign consuls in Volo, each 
carrying its national flag ; among them an English jack-tar 
bore the Union Jack. They were on their way to implore 
Edhem Pasha to show clemency and protection to the 
people of the city. All the people of Volo seemed to the 
handful of invaders most horribly afraid of them, but as 
the party advanced toward the centre of the town, and 
it was found that so far they had not murdered anybody, 
the populace grew somewhat reassured, and began to think 
they might still have a chance. 

The Sultan's young aide-de-camp and his seven followers 
pushed through to the town-hall, where they had much 
difficulty in finding any man willing to act as represen- 
tative of the Mayor, and sign the surrender of the city. 



208 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

When this was accomplished, a proclamation from Edhem 
Pasha was read from a balcony to the people, of whom 
there were about a thousand in the street, looking up 
timorously. " But as they listened, their cowed faces 
lightened. They were spared ! They lived again. And 
then a Greek on the balcony called for three cheers for 
the Sultan. How they rang ! All the Greeks who had 
called him a monster at dawn that morning emptied their 
lungs with a relish." It was a comfort to them to learn 
that they need no longer expect to be robbed or killed. 

From Pharsala the Turkish army marched on Domoko, 
a place very strongly defended by a river, hills, and earth- 
works. It was there that Neshat's three battalions of 
young Albanians, in new uniforms and with Mauser rifles, 
were led up to their death by a commander wholly ignorant 
of what could be reasonably expected of them. They 
never flinched, however, but marched on, leaving behind 
them a long line of dead and wounded. 

Domoko is at the foot of the Othrys Mountains, a range 
that on the south bounds the plain of Thessaly. Its pass 
is the Furka, leading down to Thermopylae, which it ap- 
pears is not a pass at all, but a stretch of sandy beach, on 
one side of which is the sea, and on the other the high 
cliffs of a range of mountains. 

The retreating Greeks were driven down the Furka Pass 
by a wild contingent of Albanians. These were men, or 
mostly boys, who did not serve for pay, but for the fun of 
fighting and the hope of loot. Of this last in this cam- 
paign they were sorely disappointed, but disappointment 
did not cool their zeal or dash their courage. 

When the Turks got through the Furka Pass, their advance 
was met by a white flag, which Greek officers were carry- 
ing to Edhem Pasha with news that an armistice preliminary 
to peace had been agreed on by the contending parties. 
Thus ended, on May 20, the Thirty Days' War in Thessaly. 
But in Epirus another branch of the war (if I may so ex- 
press myself) had been simultaneously going on — I was 
about to say " it raged " around the Gulf of Arta (part 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 209 

of the Ionian Sea, which leads into the Adriatic), but 
there was no raging about it. It was the story of Thessaly 
over again, — advance of the Turks, retreat of the Greeks, 
and little or no fighting to speak of. On one occasion the 
Greek army marched for a day and a half toward a place 
called the Seven Wells, where they expected to encounter 
the enemy, but before they reached it, they met a force of 
their own men in full flight, and the account of their 
rough-and-tumble retreat to the Greek shore, over a long, 
high, narrow bridge at Arta, is amusingly told by the Amer- 
ican correspondent of the London " Times." 

The Gulf of Arta has one shore in Greece, the other in 
Turkish territory. On the latter is a little white fort called 
Prevesa, which was bombarded with little or no result by 
Greek warships from April 18 to the close of hostilities. 

Mr. Richard Harding Davis, whom I have already 
quoted, says also, — 

" It is a question whether the chief trouble with the Greeks 
is not that they are too democratic to make good soldiers, and 
too independent to submit to being led by any one from either 
the council-chamber or the field. Perhaps the most perfect 
example of pure democracy that exists anywhere in the world 
is found among the Greeks to-day, — a state of equality the 
like of which is not to be found with us nor in the Republic 
of France. Each Greek thinks and acts independently, and 
respects his neighbor's opinion just as long as his neighbor 
agrees with him. . . . The country was like a huge debating 
society. When these men were called out to act as soldiers, 
almost every private had his own idea as to how the war should 
be conducted, and as his idea not infrequently clashed with 
the ideas of his superiors, there were occasional moments of con- 
fusion. . . . Too many of the Greeks went forth to war with a 
most exaggerated idea of the ease with which a Turkish reg- 
iment can be slaughtered or made to run away ; and when 
they found that very few Turks were killed, and that none of 
them ran away, the surprise at the discovery quite upset them, 
and they became panic-stricken, and there was the rout to 
Larissa in consequence." 

There was an impression in the army and elsewhere in 
Greece that the Greek campaign was much influenced by 

14 



2IO LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

letters which passed between the King and his relatives in 
various courts of Europe. The Greek soldiers at one time 
fully believed that they had been betrayed by their King, 
and that the Crown Prince had received secret orders not to 
give battle but to retreat continually. There certainly was 
much danger in Athens of an attempt at revolution. It 
would have been much more to the King's credit had he 
told his people firmly from the first that they were wholly 
unprepared for war, instead of assuring them from the 
balcony of his palace that if war should come he himself 
would lead them into Thessaly. But King George was un- 
fortunate in having been carried beyond his depth by a 
wave of excitement got up among a people who seem as 
easily moved as those of a Spanish-American republic.'^ 

It was not until December that a treaty of peace was 
signed, and Turkish troops were withdrawn from Thessaly. 
The Powers found it very hard to agree upon the terms, 
and Turkey and Greece were equally dissatisfied with their 
propositions. Germany struck the most discordant note in 
the European " concert." Her Emperor was anxious to 
conciliate Turkey, and yet so arrange the indemnity to 
be paid by Greece that the outlay should not imperil the 
interests of German capitalists who had put much money 
into Greek loans. England insisted that Turkey should 
not be allowed to keep troops upon Greek soil until the 
indemnity (or part of it at least) was paid ; Russia was 
very anxious to arrange for its satisfactory payment, and 
she intended to press for payment of the war indemnity 
accorded to her twenty years before by the Treaty of 
Berlin, when the Sultan should have money in his hands. 
Finally all was arranged. Turkey was forced reluctantly 
to give up Thessaly ; Greece was forced to let an inter- 
national committee preside over her financial affairs. So 
great was popular indignation in Athens that the Premier, 
foreseeing that the treaty would be rejected by an immense 
majority in the Boule (or Legislative Chamber), made 

1 See " A Year from a Reporter's Note-Book," by Richard Hard- 
ing Davis. 



CRETE, AND THE WAR IN THESSALY 211 

some pretext for its being signed without submitting it to 
the representatives. 

Briefly speaking, Turkey gave up Thessaly, but there was 
"a rectified frontier" laid down between Thessaly and 
Macedonia. From 1881 to the war the frontier had been 
on the summit of the mountain range which separates 
Greece from Turkey. The new frontier left Turkey the hills 
and the passes, Mount Olympus, Ossa, and Pelion, and was 
drawn at the base of the dividing range. An indemnity of 
152,000,000 drachmas, or four million Turkish pounds, 
was to be paid by Greece. She was also to renounce all 
schemes of annexing Crete. Some villages on the frontier, 
inhabited by Christian Wallachs (Roumanians) petitioned 
to be annexed to Turkey rather than to Greece. Their peti- 
tion was granted. Greece also renounced her treaty-right 
to have her subjects, if guilty of any offence while in Tur- 
key, tried by their own consuls, and not by Turkish law. 
Since this treaty was concluded, the world has heard little 
from Greece except what relates to archaeological discoveries. 
In 1896 the Olympic Games were revived in Athens, and 
were largely attended by athletes and enthusiastic students 
of classical Greek literature all over the world. It was pro- 
posed to hold these games every four years. Greece claimed 
that they must be held at Athens, but Paris in 1900, dur- 
ing the Exhibition, was the place and time preferred. The 
matter, however, seems to have been dropped. Greece 
has been out of heart since 1896, and Paris during the 
Exhibition year has been too crowded with attractions. 



A 



CHAPTER VI 

IN THE BALKANS 

WRITER in the " Economist," November, 1899, 
speaks thus of the situation in the Balkans : — 

" Politics in the Balkans at the present time must be very- 
like what politics were in Western Europe during the Middle 
Ages. The entire peninsula is divided, as Europe was then, 
among separate states which have no bond except their com- 
mon creed, and are governed by princes, each of whom is occu- 
pied in getting the better, by fair means or foul, of all the 
others. Each state is inhabited by people who have in the 
main only two occupations, agriculture and fighting, and who 
agree with their princes, that in the domain of politics, laws, 
consciences, and agreements are almost equally burdensome. 
The regular means of aggrandizement are war and intrigue, but 
if individuals, whether princes or statesmen, are too much in the 
way, the people or their princes resort to assassination without 
the slightest scruple." 

These words read like a resiatie of the events that took 
place in Bulgaria after September, 1893, when I concluded 
my account of "Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," and of the petty states that had been successively 
torn from the Ottoman Empire and granted autonomy 
under the sovereignty, for the most part, of alien princes. 
I concluded my account of Bulgaria (a tiny principality 
no larger than Scotland and Wales combined) with these 
words : — 

" Prince Ferdinand has been fortunate in his prime minister, 
M. Stambuloff, who was president of the provisional govern- 
ment during the change of princes. His fortunes are bound up 
with those of Prince Ferdinand, for whose acceptance of the Bul- 
garian throne he is mainly responsible. He is extremely popular 
in the country. That Russia is bitterly opposed both to him and 



IN THE BALKANS 213 

his prince is probably an additional reason why they are beloved 
by the Bulgarians." 

" I do not envy the man who may be called to fill the 
place of Prince Alexander," wrote an old resident of Con- 
stantinople, when the choice of a new prince was yet to be 
made. " If he attempts to rule in the interests of Bulgaria, 
he will be subjected to every insult and thwarted at every 
step. If he is simply a Russian satrap, he will be hated by 
his people." 

Such has been the history of Prince Ferdinand and of 
his principality since 1893. 

During the first years of his reign Ferdinand of Saxe- 
Coburg had little hold on the sympathies or affections of his 
people. He was a foreigner and a Catholic. He knew 
nothing of the country ; he was even ignorant of its lan- 
guage, though it must be said to his credit that he studied 
it with great diligence, and before long overcame this dis- 
advantage. But "his chief, if not his only, hold upon his 
people was that he was believed to be the safeguard of their 
national independence, while the main ground for this 
belief lay in the fact that he was the nominee of Stam- 
buloff, and was supposed to enjoy the full confidence of 
his nominator." 

Stefan Stambuloff, the Bismarck of Bulgaria, was born in 
the small fortified city of Tirnova, the ancient capital of the 
Peasant State, on Jan. 31, 1854. His father was an inn- 
keeper. He had two brothers who, during his days of 
power and prosperity, never attempted to rise above their 
original station, but Stefan from his earliest years was 
ambitious, and the first step to a rise in life was to obtain 
instruction. His father apprenticed him to a tailor, but he 
sought every opportunity of acquiring knowledge. Midhat 
Pasha, who was at that time Vali or Governor of Bulgaria, 
had been at pains to establish good schools in his vilayet, 
and Stefan contrived to receive private lessons at night 
from one of the schoolmasters. In 1866, news of a Cretan 
revolt excited the Christians in Bulgaria. Revolutionary 
committees were formed in the chief towns, and Stambuloff, 



214 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

while still pursuing his studies, joined one of these com- 
mittees. Next, much against the wishes of his father, he 
obtained, in consideration of his zeal for learning, an op- 
portunity to pursue his studies at the University of Odessa, 
where he proposed to himself to study for the priesthood. 
Odessa was at that time overrun with Nihilists. Out of 
three hundred students in the University, not more than 
thirty or forty were free from taint. They held secret 
meetings in cellars and lone places ; but at last they were 
all arrested, and the Bulgarians among them were ordered 
to go back to Turkey in twenty-four hours. Stambulofif 
chose that part of Turkey which is now Roumania ; thence, 
however, as he was looked upon as a revolutionist, he was 
sent to his own province of Bulgaria. It is strange that 
after this he was offered by the Turks an appointment as 
schoolmaster in one of the government schools. . But he 
preferred to become a book-peddler, and in that character 
to act as the " walking delegate " of revolutionary com- 
mittees, while disseminating revolutionary literature. He 
had many dangerous adventures in this part of his career, 
and often suffered greatly from cold and hunger. At length 
he found himself in Constantinople, where Ignatieff, the 
Russian Ambassador, who favored risings and revolts in 
Turkish territory, gave him a Russian passport to Odessa. 

But the chief Revolutionary Committee at Bucharest sub- 
sequently lost confidence in Stambuloff. He was not of 
the stuff that makes thorough-going Nihilist conspirators. 
Russian officials facilitated his escape, both from the Turks 
and from the Nihilists. In the various confusions of that 
time, in the Turko-Servian war, and in insurrections against 
the Turkish Government in Bulgaria and Roumania, Stam- 
buloff acted with Russia. 

At one time he undertook to organize insurrection against 
the Turks among the brigand bands of Macedonia, and 
grew thoroughly disgusted with their self-seeking and 
unreliability. 

In the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, he served with the 
Russian soldiers, who proclaimed themselves the deliverers 



IN THE BALKANS 21 5 

of their Bulgarian brothers from the yoke of the infidel. 
When the war ended, Stambuloff was selected to carry an 
address of gratitude, with two hundred and fifty thousand 
Bulgarian signatures, to the Russian Emperor ; but before 
he could deliver it, he learned that the Treaty of San 
Stefano had been abrogated by the Powers, that Bulgaria 
was not to possess Roumelia, and was not to become an 
appendage of Russia, but was to continue under the suz- 
erainty of the Sultan as an autonomous principality. 

Stambuloff then retired to Tirnova, and began practice as 
a lawyer. Since independence — or semi-independence — 
had been granted to Bulgaria by the Powers, it became the 
object of his life to maintain her nationality, and to fit his 
countrymen for self-government ; meantime, under the rule 
of Alexander of Battenberg, he took no active part in pub- 
lic affairs. 

When Bulgaria found herself deprived of a sovereign by 
the abduction and abdication of Prince Alexander, there 
was wild confusion throughout the country, but everywhere 
among the people popular feeling was with their lost 
Prince. There were doubts, however, whether all the army 
could be trusted, and Russian agitators were everywhere at 
work in Bulgaria and Roumelia. 

A provisional regency was. appointed in which Stambuloff 
took the lead, and, as I have told in " Russia and Turkey 
in the Nineteenth Century," the choice of the Regents fell 
upon Prince Ferdinand of Saxe Coburg. As the young 
Prince was inexperienced in the art of government, and 
wholly unacquainted with the language of the people he 
was called to rule, Stambuloff may be said to have taken 
him at once under his patronage and protection. At the 
point when my narrative broke off in "Russia and Turkey," 
Ferdinand had been on the throne five years. 

It was the earnest desire of Stambuloff to see him mar- 
ried, for he felt that the independence of Bulgaria depended 
on a permanent dynasty. The Constitution permitted the 
people of Bulgaria to elect a prince not of the Orthodox 
Greek Church, but insisted that his successor must belong 



2l6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

to the national religion. Stambuloff exerted himself to 
have this clause of the Constitution changed. 

The birth of a male heir to Prince Ferdinand (who had 
married Princess Maria Louisa of Parma) was hailed with 
rapture by the Bulgarians ; for the first time for many cen- 
turies a Bulgarian prince was born on Bulgarian soil, and 
he was to bear the name of Boris, the national hero of 
Bulgarian legend. Old residents in Bulgaria declared that 
they had never witnessed such a display of enthusiasm 
among a singularly undemonstrative people as that which 
greeted the news of this prince's birth. 

" From that time Prince Ferdinand felt, with some 
amount of justice, that his title to the throne rested on 
grounds independent of his great minister's support and 
favor." 

Stambuloff, having obtained a repeal of the article in the 
Constitution of Bulgaria which made it essential that Prince 
Ferdinand's successor should be of the Orthodox Church, 
incurred thereby additional distrust and more personal 
dislike from Alexander III., whose dearest hope was to 
spread the Orthodox faith among Slavs. Prince Boris was 
born Jan. 30, 1894, and was baptized a week later by the 
Roman Catholic Archbishop of Bulgaria. His godparents 
(who were both present) were Prince Robert of Parma, his 
maternal grandfather, and his paternal grandmother, the 
Princess Clementine of Orleans. He received at the same 
time the title of Prince of Tirnova. 

There had been rumors in Bulgaria that Prince Ferdi- 
nand might apostatize and declare himself a member of 
the national Orthodox Church. When this rumor reached 
his ears, he replied, " Rather than apostatize I would 
renounce my crown and my life ! " 

" Noble words ! " cried a French abb^, writing early in 
1895 on the affairs of Bulgaria. 

Alas ! Prince Boris when two years old was rebaptized 
in the Orthodox Greek Church, the Czar being invited to 
be his godfather. 

It was a keen disappointment to the Catholics of Bulgaria, 



IN THE BALKANS 21/ 

of whom there are a large number. It was also a surprise, 
for Ferdinand had written with enthusiasm to Pope Leo on 
his marriage, that he hoped to found a Cathohc dynasty 
in Bulgaria. 

The crook in Prince Ferdinand's lot was that he had 
never been officially recognized by other European sover- 
eigns ; for the Treaty of Berlin required the formal assent 
of the six Great Powers, as well as that of the Sultan (the 
suzerain of Bulgaria), to make a prince's election valid. 
England, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, and Italy had 
assented without difficulty, but not Russia. 

" To a man like Ferdinand, fond of court ceremonies, vain 
of his personal position and morbidly susceptible as to his own 
dignity, the constant slights and rebuffs which his non-recogni- 
tion entailed were more galling than they would have been to 
common mortals. But apart from this, a less sensitive prince 
might well have considered that not only his own prospects, 
but those of his dynasty were seriously imperilled by the reluc- 
tance of his ministers to take any steps to force on his 
recognition." 

It was even intimated to him from trustworthy sources 
that Stambuloff, being considered the friend of Turkey, 
and the archenemy of Russia, no reconciliation with that 
power could take place, and no recognition from the Czar 
could be expected, unless the man who held the helm of 
state could be thrown overboard. The Princess Maria 
Louisa was very ill for weeks after her son's birth ; when 
she grew better, she was removed for change of scene to 
the neighborhood of Vienna. Her husband went with her, 
and in his absence Stambuloff, as usual, was appointed 
regent. 

A very serious dispute occurred at this time (1894) with 
the Sultan concerning the appointment of Christian bishops 
in Macedonia. It was a conflict between the Greek, Bul- 
garian, and Servian nationalities in that disordered province, 
each hoping to increase its importance and influence by 
control of religion and the schools. 

Stambuloff" took it upon himself to visit the Sultan in 



21 8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Constantinople, and succeeded so well in his personal com- 
munications with Abdul Hamid that two extra bishops of 
the Bulgarian Church were appointed in Macedonia, thereby 
giving increased authority to the Bulgarian clergy. 

This triumph over Orthodox Greek Christians greatly 
increased Stambuloff's popularity among his people. Mass 
meetings and torchlight processions were held in his honor, 
and he was wildly cheered when, in a speech to the crowd, 
he declared that the interests of Bulgaria would be best pro- 
moted by cordial and loyal co-operation with the suzerain. 

But while the people of the Peasant State were wild with 
enthusiasm for Stambulofif, Prince Ferdinand's feeling was 
the reverse. " That so important an arrangement had 
been concluded without his approval, and concluded in 
such a way that the whole credit of its conclusion devolved 
on the premier, rankled in the Prince's mind, and later 
on furnished one of the chief pretexts for the Minister's 
dismissal." 

Meantime while Stambuloff, confident that he was abso- 
lutely indispensable to his royal master, believed that that 
master knew him to be indispensable, Prince Ferdinand 
was growing more and more anxious to escape from his 
leading strings and to lean for support instead upon the 
arm of Russia. This feeling grew stronger when Alexander 
III., whose personal animosity he never could have ap- 
peased, gave place to his son Nicholas upon the Russian 
throne. 

I cannot enter into an account of the conspiracies, assas- 
sinations, false accusations, executions, and intrigues, that 
disturbed the court and capital of Bulgaria, before Russian 
agents, with the sympathy and connivance of Prince Ferdi- 
nand, accomplished the great minister's fall. Falsehoods 
affecting his moral character, and falsehoods to the effect 
that torture had been inflicted by his orders on political 
prisoners were freely circulated. The most obvious and, per- 
haps I may venture to say, the most national way of getting 
rid of him was to kill him. Several methods were tried with 
this intent. One was a duel with a M. Savoif, who, with no 



IN THE BALKANS 219 

shadow of evidence, accused M. Stambuloff of an intrigue 
with his wife. But, the matter being placed in the hands 
of seconds, they unanimously decided that Savoff was 
insanely jealous, and could show no cause whatever for 
demanding satisfaction from the prime minister. A surer 
way seemed to be to resort to assassination. As Stambu- 
loff was walking home from his club one night in company 
with M. Beltscheff, the Finance Minister, a shot was fired 
from behind a wall. It was intended to hit Stambuloff, 
but it killed his companion. 

Prince Ferdinand had had in his hands, since his dissatis- 
faction concerning the bishoprics in Macedonia, an undated 
resignation, signed by Stambuloff. He had hesitated to 
use it. But now, the ignorant and fickle populace being 
sufficiently roused against the great minister, who had 
sought his country's good, he was dismissed from office 
and virtually imprisoned in his own house, where even 
his fast friends were denied free access to him. 

Unfortunately his sense of wrong got the better of his 
discretion. He was editor of a paper, in which he attacked 
his enemies, including Prince Ferdinand, with great bitter- 
ness and persistency, and he was unfortunately led to un- 
bosom himself to a German newspaper reporter, who, of 
course, in the columns of his journal made the story of 
the wrongs that the great minister had received from Prince 
Ferdinand as sensational as possible. 

After this, every kind of persecution of Stambuloff and 
of his friends was carried on with the approval, if not at 
the instigation, of the court of Sofia. In vain the fallen 
minister implored the intercession of his Prince to save him 
from his enemies, or to grant him leave, as his health 
needed a change of climate, to retire from Bulgaria. But 
Ferdinand refused " to risk his own prospects of reconcili- 
ation with St. Petersburg in order to serve the minister who 
had served him so faithfully." "This was," says Mr. 
Edward Dicey, " according to the well-known saying, 
' worse than a crime, it was a blunder,' and for blunders 
of this kind there is no place for repentance." 



220 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE ATTN CENTURY 

During the year 1895, the persecution of Stambuloff, his 
friends, and his adherents went steadily on. A mihtary 
court actually issued an order for his arrest on the charge 
that he had himself murdered his friend Beltscheff, while 
the real murderer, who had confessed the crime and had 
been committed for five years to prison, was released. The 
mob, eager for excitement, clamorously approved of these 
proceedings. Adherents of Stambuloff to whom he had 
given official positions were summarily dismissed, and 
officers whom he had promoted were turned out of the 
army. 

On July 15, as Stambuloff was driving home to his own 
house, attended by a friend and by his faithful body ser- 
vant, his carriage was attacked by four bravos, whose leader 
was Tufekcheff, a man who had been sentenced to death 
in Constantinople for the murder of Dr. Vulkovich, the 
" diplomatic agent of Bulgaria." He was at large, however, 
for the Bulgarian Government had claimed him as its sub- 
ject from Turkey, and had taken him under its protection, 
Vulkovich having been a friend and appointee of Stambu- 
loff. Two of the assassins shot, and two stabbed their 
victim, besides inflicting wounds upon all those who at- 
tempted to assist him. The police, instead of at once 
arresting Tufekcheff and his fellow-ruffians, allowed them 
to escape, and arrested instead Stambuloff's devoted servant 
and the friend who was with him in the carriage. 

He died in his own house three days after the attack, 
denouncing his murderers, and forbidding his wife to accept 
any favor whatever from his ungrateful sovereign. At the 
funeral a rabble danced, and sang ribald songs over his 
grave. 

Stambuloff died a poor man. He had neglected the 
care of his own fortune in his zeal to promote the best 
interests of his country. He was stern and sometimes 
savage in his dealings with political criminals, and with a 
just view of his own importance to the government of his 
Prince and of his country, he took little pains to conciliate 
a sensitive and vain man who for some years had been 



IN THE BALKANS 221 

growing extremely jealous of him, and very restive under 
his tutelage. 

Stambuloff left three young children, a baby boy and two 
little girls. 

Prince Ferdinand was out of the way when the murder 
took place, and he was in no hurry to get back and face 
public opinion. No one, I think, was punished for the 
murder. 

At once the Prince set himself to carry out his private 
policy, to conciliate the new Czar, and to obtain recognition 
of his title to the throne of Bulgaria. In March, 1896, the 
" conversion " of Prince Boris having taken place as a pre- 
liminary, the Czar's consent was gained to his recognition 
as Prince of Bulgaria, that of the other five Powers needed 
no negotiation, and the Sultan granted his firman for Prince 
Ferdinand's investiture. 

Stambuloff, when in the plenitude of his power, said to 
Mr. Edward Dicey that in his opinion the consent of Russia 
to the recognition so much desired by the Prince, and its 
accomplishment, would be a national calamity. The recog- 
nition would be of no practical value, but were it once 
accomplished, a Russian minister would be sent to foment 
disturbances at Sofia, and Russian consuls would become 
centres of disaffection in every little town. Indeed, in that 
event all public men who since Prince Alexander's downfall 
had governed the country might have reason to tremble 
for their lives. 

These prognostications have been in great measure ac- 
complished. It would be useless here to tell of the anarchy 
and discord, the intrigues, assassinations, and conspiracies, 
that have since prevailed in Bulgaria. 

During the Turko-Grecian war, Bulgarians made raids 
into Macedonia, but these were not encouraged by the 
Government, for the Prince and his counsellors well knew 
that Russia and Austria had planned, when any division of 
the " Sick Man's " property should take place, to give at 
least part of Macedonia to Austria- Hungary. The great 
object of Prince Ferdinand, now that he has been officially 



222 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

recognized as a European sovereign, is to curry favor with 
the two emperors at St. Petersburg and Vienna. He has 
made repeated visits to the young Czar, who is not sup- 
posed to Uke him personally, and has always returned home 
the recipient of many courtesies, but of no material advan- 
tages. The Emperor of Austria was far from pleased at 
what is called " the conversion " of Prince Boris, but Prince 
Ferdinand continues his visits to Vienna. Recently he is 
said to have been much wounded by finding himself while 
there treated as only a prince, while the Kings of Roumania 
and Servia took precedence of him. He is now reported 
to be making great efforts to secure a "kingly crown." 
Meanwhile his peasant people are growing discontented, 
and when the Emperor of Russia visits Bulgaria, as it was 
said he proposed to do after he had been to Paris to attend 
the Exposition, he may find its peasant population in open 
armed revolt. 

Prince Ferdinand certainly has lost no opportunity of in- 
gratiating himself with the Russians. He has recalled from 
exile all Bulgarian refugees and army officers implicated in 
the abduction of Prince Alexander, or convicted of taking 
part in other'Russian- Bulgarian conspiracies. Not only this, 
but these officers have been restored to their military rank, 
have received pensions for good service, and have been 
promoted over the heads of those who have been always 
faithful and loyal. To the Prince of Montenegro, who is 
understood to be high in favor at the court of Russia, Prince 
Ferdinand is effusively cordial. Not only this, but he has 
endeavored to bring back the National Church of Bulgaria 
into the ranks of the Orthodox Greek Church. The differ- 
ences between these churches are political and not doc- 
trinal. In this, however, he has not succeeded. His people 
no sooner got wind of the project than they declared that it 
would be a renunciation of Bulgarian political interests in 
favor of Greece ; and the matter was dropped in consid- 
eration of almost general opposition. 

Prince Ferdinand is now a widower. His young wife, 
Princess Maria Louisa of Parma, died early in 1899, and 



IN THE BALKANS 223 

the Prince seized the occasion to have as many crowned 
heads as possible come to Sofia, and do him honor by being 
present at her funeral. 

Roumania officially declines to be counted one of the 
Balkan States. She says that geographically she has no 
connection with the peninsula ; that she has an aristocracy, 
which Bulgaria, Servia, Macedonia, Bosnia, and Hertzego- 
vina have not ; a settled government and a people attached 
to their own sovereign. But there seems no other way 
in which to class a kingdom made out of the Turkish pro- 
vinces of Wallachia, Moldavia, and Dobrudscha. Of the 
history of Roumania before 1893, I have told at length in 
" Russia and Turkey in the Nineteenth Century." Since 
May 23, 1 88 1, when Charles of HohenzoUern, its prince, 
was crowned with an iron crown made from cannon cap- 
tured from the Turks at Plevna, his kingdom has been one 
of those fortunate countries which may be said to have had 
no history. Roumania has gone on increasing in prosperity 
and strength, and has silently developed her resources. 

When firmly seated on his throne, King Carol I. turned 
his attention to his country's peaceful development. 

As unhappily he and his charming wife. Queen Elizabeth, 
known in literature as Carmen Sylva, have no living child, 
he selected Prince Ferdinand of HohenzoUern, the second 
son of his elder brother, to be Crown Prince of Roumania 
and his heir. This choice was confirmed by the Parliament 
of Roumania in 1889. In 1893 this Prince married Marie, 
daughter of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh and Duke of 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.^ Her mother was the Grand Duchess 
Marie of Russia, daughter of Alexander II. 

I'here have been no events connected with foreign policy 
to mark King Carol's reign. As a HohenzoUern and as a 
soldier, he has devoted much attention to his army. Sir 
Charles Dilke said of the Roumanian troops, after their 
deeds in the Russo-Turkish war of 1 87 7, that as war mate- 
rial they were not inferior to British soldiers, and it has been 
1 Prince Alfred died July 30, 1900. 



224 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

their monarch's care to train them, and to discipline them, 
to the highest mark of military efificiency. He does not con- 
tent himself with merely watching the behavior of his troops 
at the annual manoeuvres, but keeps in constant touch with 
their officers, and masters every detail that may tend to in- 
crease their efficiency and raise their standard. Meantime 
no efforts to promote education have been neglected by 
himself or by his wife ; both are indefatigable in their efforts 
for the welfare of the national schools and for the culture of 
the daughters of the nobility. Agriculturally Roumania might 
be one of the richest countries in Europe. Of its inhabit- 
ants, a recent French writer has said that they are " bril- 
liant, intelligent, less given to work than to spend, seldom 
looking ahead, and too ready to run into debt to gratify 
their momentary caprices." 

Occasionally a ripple of domestic trouble disturbs the 
peace that seems to brood over this favored land. At one 
time it was an ecclesiastical difficulty. Roumania had origi- 
nally belonged to the Orthodox Greek Church, which was 
governed by the Patriarch at Constantinople, and in ritual 
and in doctrine it still adheres to the same form of Chris- 
tianity. While heartily attached to the Greek Church as 
governed from Constantinople, it was bitterly opposed to 
the Russian form of the Greek Church, which holds the 
Czar to be its national head. In former days (say as far back 
as the early forties, when I was in Paris as a young girl) no 
Roumanian would enter the Russian Greek Church in the 
Rue Neuve de Berri, be married or buried or baptized by 
one of its ministers ; but in 1882 Roumania severed its con- 
nection with the Patriarchate at Constantinople, selected an 
exarch of its own choice to be its spiritual head, conse- 
crated its own holy anointing oil, and in 18S5 the Greek 
Patriarch of Constantinople acknowledged its independence. 
In 1897 the Prime Minister, who was inclined to Radical- 
ism, brought much odium on himself by his arbitrary treat- 
ment of the Metropolitan Primate Gennadius, who, for polit- 
ical reasons and under government pressure, was tried by 
the Holy Synod on charges of violating some of the funda- 



IN THE BALKANS 225 

mental precepts of the Orthodox Church and of misappro- 
priating ecclesiastical funds. He was deprived of his digni- 
ties and sentenced to retire to a monastery ; but the people 
were indignant at what they considered political persecu- 
tion, and the affair ended by discrediting the Ministry. The 
sentence on Gennadius was annulled, and he was restored 
to the dignity of Metropolitan Primate, which he at once 
resigned. 

Another difficulty was caused by a bill that was brought 
forward by the Radical party, not only to prevent ahens 
from buying land in Roumania, but even from owning real 
estate, if it came to them by inheritance. The extremists 
thought it ought, in that case, to be forfeited to the State ; 
the more moderate wished that the alien inheritor should 
have power to sell his land and to pocket the proceeds. This 
compromise was afterwards adopted. In 1897 arose also a 
great anti-Semitic movement, which was popular throughout 
the country. The Jews had been admitted to citizenship 
in 1879, when nine hundred Jews, who had served in the 
Roumanian army, came forward and claimed the franchise. 
In 1897 a persecution began. An attempt was made to 
deprive them of certain privileges, especially admission into 
the higher schools or colleges. The Jews in Roumania, as in 
Germany, Austria, and Russia, had created great jealousy by 
carrying off a disproportionate number of school honors and 
prizes. This was visited on their humbler co-religionists. 
Riots occurred all over the country ; in Bucharest the mob 
attacked Jewish shops and houses ; in Galatz more than a 
hundred and sixty Jewish shops were sacked, and though 
many of their owners were severely wounded, the police did 
not interfere. Nevertheless Roumania was able officially 
to congratulate herself that she was " free from the fer- 
mentations " of other States in the Balkan Peninsula. 

The present Emperor William of Germany, writing to 
King Carol in 1891, thus expressed himself: — 

" Five and twenty years have elapsed since your Majesty was 
first summoned to undertake the government of the Roumanian 
State, and a decade will have passed on the 22d of this 

IS 



226 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

month since that memorable day on which your Majesty was 
able, after a regency victorious in war, and proved in peace, to 
receive a royal crown for Roumania and your illustrious house, 
from God's altar, by the unanimous desire of the Roumanian 
nation. Thanks to your Majesty's wise and vigorous rule over 
a richly endowed and sober nation, Roumania has become an 
equal and respected member of the Council of the nations, 
and under your Majesty's sceptre every Roumanian can rejoice 
in the proud consciousness of belonging to a State which, as 
warden of an old-world civilization, enjoys the sympathetic 
good-will of all civilized nations. 

" Since our houses are so closely connected, it is my heart's 
desire to express my warm congratulations to your Majesty on 
this joyful occasion, and also the hope that as the bonds of our 
personal friendship, so also the firm political relations of Rou- 
mania to the German Empire may be preserved in time to 
come, such as they have been in past years, under the enlight- 
ened government of your Majesty. 

" Your Majesty will place me under an obligation by laying 
my sincere congratulations before her Majesty the Queen, who 
has earned undying honor by your side, in cultivating Art and 
the Ideal, as well as in the formation of the Roumanian 
nation." 

Of Bosnia and Hertzegovina since 1893 there is nothing 
to be said. They have lived peaceably and prosperously 
under the rule of the Emperor of Austria, but a few words 
may be added concerning Montenegro and Servia. 

Montenegro, or Tchernogora, as its people call it, though 
the smallest European state that can be recognized as a 
state by other nations, with a population not exceeding 
that of a third-rate United States city, has had, as I have 
said in " Russia and Turkey," a most interesting history. 
Mr. Gladstone said that it might have risen to world-wide 
and immortal fame, had there been a Scott to learn and 
tell the marvels of its history, or a Byron to spend and 
be spent on its behalf. 

Its hardy inhabitants have for centuries held their Black 
Mountains against the Turks, and have sturdily maintained 
their independence. It has of late years made some long 



IN THE BALKANS 22/ 

Strides in the march of progress, in large part due to its 
Prince Nicholas (or Nikita) who has reigned over it for 
forty years. His rule is a paternal despotism, well suited 
to the wants and disposition of his people. Under a tree 
near his palace he sits in public to hear of grievances and 
dispense justice. He is a man of good education, and of 
many accomplishments. He has given his subjects a writ- 
ten code of laws, made roads, built bridges and school- 
houses, and has organized a standing army, though of the 
very smallest kind. His popularity is great, and is not 
confined to his own dominions. 

Alexander HI. spoke of him as " Russia's only ally," 
and some persons in Austria and in Servia indulge hopes 
that if anything should happen to change the dynasty of 
Servia, it may be Nicholas of Montenegro who will be called 
to fill the throne. Several of the beautiful, well-trained, 
and stately daughters of this prince have made marriages 
in royal families of Europe, and these alliances have 
given much importance to their family and its little state 
in the eyes of the world. The Princess Elena married 
the Prince of Naples, and is now the Queen of Italy ; 
and in another century Europe may see offshoots from 
the princely line of Montenegro presiding over other 
courts. But Servia, unless it can find means to offer 
Nicholas of Montenegro its kingly crown (in which his 
now gray head would lie uneasy) must continue to endure 
the intrigues of ex-King Milan, the most disreputable man 
and most contemptible sovereign at present in the world. 

When I broke off the history of Servia in " Russia and 
Turkey," the boy-king Alexander had anticipated his legal 
majority, and by a clever coup d''ctat had taken the reins 
of government into his own hands. 

He is the son of King Milan of the Obrenovitch family, 
who when a boy succeeded his uncle, Prince Milosch, an 
able ruler, who was assassinated. During his minority a 
regency governed the country well, while Milan was sent 
to Paris for his education. He came back thoroughly 
accomplished in all that the worst side of Parisian life 



228 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

could teach him. He married a Russian lady who became 
his Queen Natalie, and their conjugal disputes agitated 
Eastern Europe for several years. I have told something 
about them elsewhere. In 1889 King Milan was forced to 
abdicate, receiving an immense sum of money to pay off 
his gambUng debts and to start him in a new career of fast 
life in European capitals, but he made in return a promise 
that he would never show his face again in Servia. 

After the coup d'etat of 1894, when young King Alex- 
ander upset the ministry and suspended the Constitution, 
the poor boy grew weary of governing his unruly subjects, 
and became unpopular.^ His father took advantage of his 
friendlessness and inexperience to persuade him to invite 

1 "The marriage of King Alexander of Servia calls attention to 
the remarkable history of that country so far as the Obrenovitch 
dynasty is concerned. Not three-quarters of a century ago, Milosch 
Obrenovitch was a swineherd. Milan, his descendant, the father 
of King Alexander, was himself King of Servia until eleven years 
ago, when his dissipations not only cost him his throne, but forced 
Queen Natalie to divorce him. After his abdication in favor of his 
son, then only thirteen years old, Servian history went on with greater 
placidity, the ministries as a whole coping not incapably with the 
situation. In 1893, however* two events occurred which changed this 
course. The King's majority was proclaimed, and a formal recon- 
ciliation took place between Milan and Natalie, though each has since 
pursued a separate and certainly a nomadic way of life. The Queen 
had as one of her ladies-in-waiting Madame Maschin, the widow of a 
mining engineer. Madame Maschin was apparently much beloved by 
the Queen, and also fascinated the impressionable young King by her 
beauty and her mental ability. An intimacy followed which did not 
seem to excite any great comment in Servia, but when the young 
King, having had his marriage proposals refused by every royal 
princess to whom he paid his addresses, proposed to make Madame 
Maschin the Queen of Servia, the announcement was received with 
not a little amazement and severe criticism throughout Europe, 
except, strangely enough, in Servia itself. The people of that coun- 
try had seen quite enough of the tutelage of King Milan, who had, 
unfortunately, returned to Servia two years ago, having induced his 
son to appoint him Commander-in-chief of the Army. The general 
opinion therefore was that a change in tutelage could not be for the 
worse. The new Queen of Servia is said to be thirty-eight years old. 
Let us hope that her influence may be for good in that strange coun- 
try where heretofore grotesqueness and tyranny have been so preva- 
lent." — " The Outlook," Aug. 11, 1900. 



IN THE BALKANS 229 

him to return to Belgrade, and there act as his adviser. 
He came back, therefore, to Servia in 1894 in this capacity, 
and at once put himself in opposition to the Radical party, 
which he deemed the party of Queen Natalie, whom he 
had illegally divorced and whom he was now forced to 
take back again. 

In 1898 King Milan was made Commander-in-Chief of 
the Servian Army, and caused the Radical leader, M. Pasich, 
to be tried for high treason, for disaffection to him. M. 
Pasich was, however, acquitted. Next King Milan took 
his son away with him to show him the world, and to 
increase his own influence with him, for the ex-king is a 
man of delightful manners and very considerable informa- 
tion and intelligence. Soon after the two kings got home 
to Belgrade, a man named Knezevich fired in the street at 
ex- King Milan, who was not hurt, but having escaped the 
bullet, thought it a good occasion for arresting all his 
opponents. Their trial was taking place in Servia while 
the Dreyfus court-martial was going on at Rennes, and 
I found it curious to read day by day, in the I^ondon 
"Times," the reports of both trials. Day after day in 
Servia no evidence whatever bearing on the case before 
the court was produced. Knezevich confessed his crime, 
and made various contradictory statements, but the object 
of the trial was to prove a conspiracy which should impli- 
cate the Radicals and Prince Peter Karageorgevitch, a young 
man who has lately published a very interesting book on 
India. All that was brought forward bearing on this 
subject was some evidence that Knezevich — a former 
member of the Belgrade Fire Brigade, who was in search 
of employment — had met on board a steamer on the 
Danube a strange gentleman, name unknown, who 
might have been Prince Peter Karageorgevitch, if he 
was not somebody else. Evidence against others who 
were arrested for conspiracy, and were in danger of their 
lives, was such as this ; for example, that one had been 
known to shake hands with Pasich ; that another had in 
his possession a proclamation put forth by Alexander 



230 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Karageorgevitch, son of the founder of the Karageorgevitch 
family, in 1883; and there were other accusations of the 
same irrelevant and trivial kind. But even a packed 
court could not convict King Milan's forty detractors on 
a capital charge of conspiracy to assassinate him. Russia 
and Austria also stepped in to prevent the wholesale 
judicial murder of the accused, some of whom in political 
disputes were their adherents. At the close of the trial 
in September, 1899, the " Economist," an English paper, 
thus summed up the proceedings : — 

" The evidence proved nothing except that Knezevich did shoot 
at King Milan, and that a great many people wished he had 
succeeded in his object, but the court, which palpably believed 
none of the evidence, sentenced the majority of the accused 
to penal servitude for twenty years. Even the forms of justice 
were scarcely observed. Among the accused was the mistress 
of one of the implicated officers. There was no particle of 
evidence against her, but the court held that if she had not 
known of the plot (supposing there had been a plot) she ought 
to have known it, and on the strength of that cynical opinion 
involved her in the general sentence. There is no resistance 
from the people, because the soldiers are with King Milan, and 
the people dislike being shot, and there is no one to whom to 
appeal except the Emperors, who only intervene to preserve 
their adherents' lives, leaving them to suffer any lesser penalty 
which their jailers, who are in fact their accusers, may think 
it expedient to inflict. These penalties will be grave or light, 
according to the amount of support which the accused, if 
released, can offer to King Milan." 



ENGLAND 

Chapter I. The Diamond Jubilee. 

" II. The Queen's Ministers from 1880-1900. 

" III. Frontier Wars in India. 

" IV. India, the Plague and the Famine. 



ENGLAND 
CHAPTER I 

THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 

" T^NGLAND," the third volume of my Historical 
■*--' Narratives of the Nineteenth Century, carried the 
story through my own lifetime (I may almost say through 
that of Queen Victoria), up to the close of 1894. It 
began in 1822, during the reign of George IV., and its 
last chapter contained an account of the Queen's Jubilee 
in 1887, when she had reigned for half a century. 

It is from 1894 to the close of 1900 that I have now to 
write, and, except as regards the Diamond Jubilee of 1897, 
when the Queen's reign had lasted sixty years, there were 
no picturesque events in England (on her own soil) dur- 
ing these years. All stirring events in English history hap- 
pened out of England, mainly in Africa, and these must be 
related in the fourth part of this volume, which, taking 
up the history of Europe in Africa from 1895, will bring it 
down to the present time. 

The history of England during the ten years that elapsed 
from the Golden Jubilee in 1887 to the Diamond Jubilee in 
1897 was almost entirely parliamentary; its interest has 
lain not with individuals, — not with their achievements or 
with biography, — but with the working out of English in- 
stitutions, the deepening in men's hearts of English feeling, 
of loyalty to their mother-land, and, above all, to their Queen. 
June 22, 1897, was the Great Jubilee Day. The Government 



234 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE NTH CENTUR V 

had been especially desirous to make it an occasion on 
whicli the representatives of Greater Britain should join 
with the English people in demonstrating at once their loy- 
alty to the mother-land and their devotion to the Queen.^ 
Hitherto Great Britain had been accused of apathy and in- 
difference to her remote dependencies and her colonies ; 
this time the great princes of India were bidden to the 
festival, and the premiers of the self-governing colonies 
were invited to bring with them detachments of their 
colonial troops, and leading men from their colonies. 
Mr. Richard Harding Davis on this remarks : — 

" There was much reason to envy these happy few who were 
chosen to represent the different British colonies and posses- 
sions at the Jubilee. . . . They were probably worthy young 

1 As I was born a subject of Queen Victoria, and all my ancestors 
for more than two hundred years had been born English subjects 
in Virginia or Massachusetts, I felt that in any account I might give 
of the Jubilee, I might either have to suppress what I felt, or be 
suspected by my American readers of a too effusive loyalty. I have 
therefore co])ied what I have to say from sources no one can look on 
with suspicion. The details of the day are partly from Mr. Richard 
Harding Davis, an American, partly from an account of how much 
foreign nations were impressed and affected by the Jubilee, from M. 
Francis de Pressense, a Frenchman, and partly a resume of a state- 
ment of the changes wrought during the Queen's reign in England, 
from the pen of Mr. W. T. Stead, the free-lance editor of the " Pall 
Mall Gazette," and the English " Review of Reviews." The passages 
I quote are taken from an account telling how he, a boy brought up in 
a non-conformist family in the north of England in all the traditions 
of the old Cromwellian days, became convinced that monarchy under 
Queen Victoria was something very different from what he had been 
taught to think "kingship" was, by his stern old father in North 
Country Independent schools. Probably no one not born and 
brought up a subject of the Queen can understand anything of per- 
sonal feelings entertained for her by such persons in all parts of the 
world. Not long since at a dinner table where many people were 
present, a lady made some disparaging remarks about the Queen, and, 
turning to me, added, " Don't you think so, Mrs. Latimer?" I an- 
swered, " You do not understand — you cannot understand. If you 
had said such things of my own father and mother, you could not 
have pained me more." My questioner was a /adv, intelligent and 
kind-hearted. " I am sorry," she said — and no more. This was far 
better than apology. 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 235 

men, but at home they were part of a whole regiment, and of no 
more honor in their own country than so many policemen, while 
in their eyes London was the capital of the world. . . . These 
men found, when they reached the great capital, that they were 
as gods and heroes, and their strange uniforms passed them 
freely into theatres and music halls and public houses, and 
women smiled on them, and men quarrelled to have the privi- 
lege of standing them a drink. Banquets and special perform- 
ances, medals and titles, were showered upon them according to 
their rank and degree, and they in their turn furnished the 
most picturesque feature of the spectacle when it came." 

For six miles the fronts of all houses in the London 
streets along which the procession was to pass were hidden 
behind pine scaffolding (the price of lumber and of labor 
rose daily higher and higher), but on the day of the pro- 
cession the scaffoldings were hidden by red drapery, and 
adorned with flags, emblems, and pots of flowers. All 
London had worked to make the occasion a success. And 
indeed the festival of the Jubilee was a success without a 
drawback. Even the skies were kind. The weather, 
which when day dawned had been doubtful, brightened 
a few minutes before the Queen left Buckingham Palace. 
As she passed the gates, she touched a button which sped 
her message to every government under her sway : " From 
my heart I thank my beloved people. May God bless 
them." 

Answers to this message came back over the wires from 
Australia, Canada, and the Cape, before the Queen reached 
London Bridge. 

Says the London '' Spectator " : — 

" The words of the Queen's message are the simple thanks a 
mother would give to her children who had been paying her a 
compliment ; but imagine how every other sovereign in the world 
would have announced that message ; how stilted it would have 
been, how cautious, how suggestive of a head slightly turned 
with adulation. The Queen, who we know had been described 
by John Bright, as well as Ministers of State, as 'the most 
truthful woman in England,' said nothing but what it rose in 
her heart to say, and in her outburst as in her self-restraint 



236 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

thanked her people more warmly than if she had employed any 
amount of literary skill in framing her message." 

All over England and in all the colonies there were 
responsive Jubilee celebrations. Ireland alone refused to 
join. Two thousand five hundred bonfires blazed upon 
hill-tops through England, Wales, and Scotland on the 
night of the Jubilee. 

If any one looks over a file of London papers of the 
month preceding the Jubilee he will find forebodings of 
falling stands and sudden panics, of fires and of mobs, 
of people crushing each other to death as in Paris and 
Moscow. It is said that with cautious foresight in the 
week previous to the Jubilee eight thousand coffins had 
been shipped to London. 

*' That no accident happened was perhaps the most remark- 
able and interesting fact of the whole Jubilee, but English con- 
servatism, and the English regard for the law, and the wonder- 
ful management and executive ability shown in organizing 
the procession, and in disciplining the spectators, prevented 
it. The chief credit is undoubtedly due to the head of the 
police, and to the fact that when he had decided which was 
the best way to regulate the movements of the people, the 
people were willing to abide by his decision. . . . This route 
over which the Queen was to drive, and which was guarded so 
admirably, and made beautiful by the display of such loyal good 
feeling, held in its six miles of extent more places of historical 
value to the English-speaking race than perhaps any other six 
miles that could be picked off on a map of the world." 

After the Queen the one of all the individuals in the pro- 
cession most cheered by the people was Lord Roberts of 
Cabul and Kandahar, on his white pony, decorated with six 
war medals hanging from its breast-strap. That pony had 
carried its master nineteen days from Cabul to Kandahar. 
The crowd saluted their hero with shouts of "■ God bless 
you, Bobs ! " and every now and then during a halt the 
General would rein up and speak to some soldier in the 
line who had served with him in India. 

The Queen was in an open landau drawn by the eight 




GENERAL KELLY-KENNY. 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 237 

cream-colored State Hanoverian horses. With her on the 
back seat of the carriage were two young princesses in 
white, her grand-daughters. The Queen, as usual, wore 
black, but had a large white parasol. 

" The procession with its mile and a half of carriages, 
European and Asiatic Princes, Colonial Premiers, British 
troops, Colonial troops, and black, brown, and yellow aux- 
iliaries, passed to St. Paul's Cathedral and afterwards by the 
south side of the river back to the Palace, without a delay or an 
accident ; though the crowd amazed foreigners and the Queen 
was accompanied along that six mile route by that continuous 
roar of enthusiastic acclaim which is like no other sound on 
earth, and which no one who has heard it ever forgets. The 
scene before the great Cathedral moved the Queen to tears and 
ended, as it should have done, in a spontaneous and irresistible 
outburst of the National Anthem, — an unrehearsed and there- 
fore most magnificent effect. The vast crowds were more than 
gratified, they were deeply moved ; and neither during the pro- 
cession nor at night, when London was illuminated as it never 
had been before, was there any violence or an)^ disobedience to 
the police, who maintained their great rules for the guidance of 
the endless streams of humanity more easily than on any previ- 
ous occasion. 1 

" Rising from the lowest step of the Cathedral was a great 
tribune separated into three parts, and back of this, red-covered 
balconies hung between the great black pillars like birds' nests 
in the branches of a tree. 

" Below them the vast tribune shone with colored silk and 
gold cloth, and radiated with jewels like a vast bank of beau- 
tiful flowers. Among these flowers were Indian princes in 
coats sewn with diamonds that hid them in flashes of light ; 
there were archbishops and bishops in robes of gold that sug- 
gested those of the Church of Rome, ambassadors in stars and 
sashes, with their official families in gold braid and decorations. 
In the centre was a great mass of smiling-faced choir-boys, like 
cherubs in night-gowns, and two hundred musicians picked 
from the bands of many regiments, and wearing many uniforms. 
On the lowest step were dignitaries of the Church in the pink 
and crimson capes the different universities had bestowed upon 
them, and the Bishop of Finland, the representative of Russia, 
and the Bishop of New York, and, what was perhaps the most 

1 London " Spectator," June 26, 1897. 



238 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

striking example of the all-embracing nature of the celebration, 
a captain from the Salvation Army with his red ribbon around 
his cap. There were Judges in wigs and black silk gowns, and 
Chinamen in robes of colored silk, and Turkish envoys in fezes, 
and Persian envoys in astrakhan caps. . . . There were rows 
of beef-eaters in the costume of the Tudors, and Blue-coat boys 
in the costume of Edward VI. 

" The ceremony that followed upon the arrival of the Queen 
was a very simple one, but it was the most impressive one that 
could have been selected for that moment in the history of the 
Empire. It consisted of the Te Deum, the National Anthem, 
and the Doxology. . . . The last was probably sung as it was 
never sung before . . . for there were ten thousand people sing- 
ing ' Praise God from Whom all blessings flow,' as loudly as they 
could, and with tears running down their faces. . . . There 
was probably never before such a moment, in which so many 
races of people, of so many castes, and of such different values 
to this world, sang praises to God at one time, and in one place, 
and with one heart. And when it was all over, and the cannon 
at the Tower were booming across the water-front, the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, of all the people in the world, waved his 
arm and shouted, 'Three cheers for the Queen!' and the sol- 
diers stuck their bearskins on their bayonets and swung them 
above their heads and cheered, and the women on the house- 
tops and balconies waved their handkerchiefs and cheered, and 
the men beat the air with their hats and cheered, and the Lady 
in the Black Dress nodded and bowed her head at them, and 
winked away the tears in her eyes."^ 

Thus the Jubilee appealed to noble sensibilities and to 
generous natures, and moved them to their depths. 

Said M. de Pressens6, speaking of the Jubilee and of the 
effect it must have produced upon foreign nations : — 

" A great people have celebrated worthily the great reign of a 
justly beloved Queen. It has been not only the glorification of 
their sovereign, it has been also the self-glorification of her peo- 
ple. . . . England has been right in extolling the public and 
private virtues which have so much altered public feeling. Eng- 
lishmen have not been slow in thankfully acknowledging how 
much the last sixty years have owed of their prosperity and 
glory to what Queen Victoria has done, and yet more to what 

1 R. H. Davis : " A Year from a Reporter's Note-Book." 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 239 

she has been. Truly this is enviable praise ! Yes, by what 
she has done and what she has left undone, Queen Victoria 
has been a perfect constitutional queen. She has never been 
an inch below her duties or above her rights. She has known 
how to be a loving, dutiful, obedient wife in her home, and a 
sovereign lady by her own birthright in her kingdom. . . . 
London has solemnized a kind of semi-secular retrospect. Its 
people have passed in review with a sort of proud contentment 
sixty years of change, — of radical, thorough-going, organic 
change, of revolution political, social, and moral, which have 
been also sixty years of perfect internal order, peace, and pros- 
perity. They have above all become sensible of a new fact, the 
Empire in its greatness. . . . But Great Britain ought not to 
forget that Imperialism is not empire ; that the Empire has 
been created not by Imperialists, but by those healthy, vigorous, 
liberal-minded generations who took for their first duty the con- 
quest and preservation of freedom at home and abroad, and that 
perhaps the worst foes of England's greatness might be so- 
called Imperialists trying to tighten purely ideal bonds, which 
cannot be shortened or materialized without becoming shackles." 

From Mr. Davis, the American, and M. de Pressens^, the 
Frenchman, both writing on the Jubilee, we turn to Mr. 
William T. Stead, who asks us to think of him as an ex-non- 
conformist bred up in the north of England in ideas utterly 
opposed to monarchy and monarchical institutions. 

Contrasting England now (in the June number of 
"Review of Reviews," 1897) with what she was when 
Queen Victoria in her girlhood mounted the throne, he says, 
after dwelling on the extraordinary improvements science 
and art have effected in the conveniences of our daily 
life : — 

"To-day the poor man gets more for his penny than sixty 
years ago the rich man got for his shilling; and besides that 
each penny goes twice as far, he has twice as many pennies. 
He has all London — and such a London ! — a city of glory and 
splendor compared to what it used to be, kept in cleanliness 
and order for him, as his own, with its museums, libraries, and 
art galleries. Free baths and wash-houses are in every district, 
and schools are almost at his own door. He is free of the 
parks as if they were his own demesnes. He has more constant 



240 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

work, and much higher wages, with cheap bread, cheap sugar, 
and cheap tea. He has shorter hours of labor, bank holidays, 
and half holidays on Saturdays; the hospitals provide him with 
free medicine, the work-houses with free shelter. Pure water 
is laid on in every house, and the magnificent drainage system 
carries off all the sewage. All this is new since sixty years 
ago. Besides all this, a half -penny post-card will carry his mes- 
sage to John O'Groat's House, or the Land's End. A half- 
penny will bring all the news of the earth fresh to his own 
door, and a workman's ticket on any line to and from his 
work is a half-penny a mile. For sixpence the lightning will 
carry his message to any part of the United Kingdom, in the 
twinkling of an eye, and for another sixpence the sun will 
take his portrait in a flash of light. 

" ' But the poor and the vicious are with us all the same,' 
objected young Rip (for this was an imaginary conversation in 
which Rip Van Winkle, who had slept for sixty years, made 
note of the changes from 1837 to 1897). 'Last year,' he con- 
tinued, ' there were nearly five thousand criminals in our 
prisons.' ' How many did you say?' cried his father. ' Fifty 
thousand?' 'Good heavens, no ! Five thousand.' 'It was 
fifty thousand in my time,' said his father, 'with only half 
the population,' " 

The greatest change brought about in Queen Victoria's 
reign is that men and women are now anxious to share 
what they have with other people. Sixty years ago, the 
leading idea was exclusion and privilege. Now, in England 
it is said, whatever we have we share. When the Queen 
ascended the throne, cable messages were but projected, 
now they link together the whole world. In the first five 
years after the Queen ascended the throne, there was no 
reason to think that her reign would be prosperous. 

"A succession of bad harvests since 1836," says Sir Theo- 
dore Martin, "had sent up the price of provisions to an alarm- 
ing extent, while languishing manufactures and a general stag- 
nation of trade had so greatly lowered the scale of wages as to 
make the pressure of high prices all but intolerable. 

"Serious insurrections all over the country as late as 1842 
required to be put down by military force. . . . Disorderly 
mobs traversed the country, forcing their way into mills and 
manufactories, destroying their machinery, and compelling by 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 24 1 

threats and intimidation those who were willing to work to 
cease working and join in their riotous demonstrations." . . . 

Canada, too, when the Queen came to the throne, was 
in incipient insurrection. There is now no more loyal 
colony under the flag of England. In the non-conformist 
churches, as well as in the Established Church, there has 
been a great revival of real religion, obscured, it may be, 
sometimes by sectarianism or formalism, but in all de- 
nominations tending to increased activity and benevolent 
interest in the ignorant and poor. " Not at any previous 
period," adds Mr. Stead, " have there been so many good 
men and women, stout-hearted Englishmen and clear-souled 
Englishwomen, living and praying and toiling for the com- 
mon weal." 

Of course the poet-laureate, Mr. Alfred Austin, did his 
duty on the occasion, and was thought by London critics 
to have produced one very fine line. 

The Queen says, speaking of her people, — 

"Their thoughts shall be my thoughts, their aim my aim, 
Their free-lent loyalty my right divine." 

But the poem that went to the nation's heart was Mr. Kip- 
ling's Recessional. Even more striking to my mind were 
some verses republished in the " Daily Chronicle," in the 
week of the Jubilee. Some one had dug them out of an 
old play, " The Royal Convert," by Nicholas Rowe, but not 
pubHshed until 1774, when he had long been dead. 
Thus prophesies a sage who peers into the future : — 

" Of Royal race a British Queen shall rise 
Great, Gracious, Pious, fortunate and wise : 
To distant lands she shall extend her fame, 
And leave to later times a mighty name. 
Tyrants shall fall, and faithless kings shall bleed, 
And groaning nations by her arms be freed. 
But chief this happy land her care shall prove 
And find from her a more than mother's love. 
From hostile rage she shall preserve it free, 
Safe in the compass of her ambient sea ; 
Though famed her arms in many a cruel fight, 
16 



242 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Yet most in peaceful arts she shall delight; 
And her chief glory shall be to Unite. 
Picts, Saxons, Angles, shall be no more known, 
But iJritons be the noble name alone. 
With joy their ancient hate they shall forego, 
While Discord hangs her hateful head below, 
Mercy and truth and right she shall maintain, 
And every virtue crowd to grace her reign : 
Auspicious Heaven on all her days shall smile, 
And with eternal Union bless her British isle." 

I will add to these poems on the Jubilee a sonnet, called 
by its author " An American Echo of the Jubilee," which 
I have thought extremely beautiful : — 

August, 1897. 
Even in a palace life may be lived well. 

Marcus Aurelius. 

" Queen of the home, and Empress of the earth ! 
Where'er to-day her fettered lightnings run, 
Girdling the world more swiftly than the sun. 

They tell her love, her sympathy, her worth 

Through sixty years of mingled dole and mirth, 
Since that benignant, splendid reign begun, — 
Since the slim girl first heard that first glad gun 

Which lit the fire upon her sacred hearth. 
Not to the Monarch, — to the mighty Queen 
Whose sceptre sweeps the farthest seas to-day, 
Whose standard floats where'er a wave is seen, — 

Men kneel in homage, — from all lauds they come. 
And bow in reverence to that loftiest sway — 
The Mother-Queen, the high ideal of Home." ^ 

Perhaps the most beautiful and suggestive exhibition 
during the Week of Jubilee was the naval review and 
illumination of the ships at Spithead. No contrast can 
be greater than that of the state of feeling among English 
seamen in 1797 (the year of the great mutiny at the Nore 
and at Spithead) and the feeling of loyalty to Queen and 
country that animated every seaman who took part in the 
naval exhibition at the Jubilee, 

My father always said that seamen in the English navy 
had had great grievances to complain of when they muti- 
^ William P. Andrews. 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 243 

nied at the Nore and at Spithead in 1797. It was the year 
he entered the service, and he used to tell how even in the 
midshipmen's mess, when a biscuit was broken, weevils 
would try to run away with the crumbs. The result of the 
mutiny (though for the sake of discipline the ring-leaders 
were severely punished) was to make great changes for the 
better in the food and comfort of English seamen. 

In almost every particular the sailors of 1797 had been 
ill used. Impressment, pay, food, personal ill-treatment, 
all were causes of the mutiny. Nelson, who was always 
solicitous for seamen, thought their grievances very real. 
The result was that in May, 1797, the mutiny broke out, — 
the greatest danger possibly that England had had to face 
since the Armada sailed up the Channel. Yet the spirit of 
the sailors was such that the following noble words formed 
part of the remonstrance of the mutineers at Spithead : 
"We agree in opinion that we should suffer double the 
hardships we have hitherto experienced before we would 
suffer the Crown of England to be in the least imposed 
upon by any Power in the world." 

The mutiny alarmed the country and gave rise to excep- 
tional legislation, which went far to reduce the wrongs of 
which the seamen complained. 

" Now what have we seen at Spithead within the last few 
days ? " writes a correspondent to the London " Spectator,"— 
" a magnificent fleet, a contented and disciplined navy, — a har- 
vest from the culture of the seaman as liberal as it has been fore- 
seeing. The Jack Tar of 1897 glories in his duties ; his brother 
of 1797 did his duty, but revolted from his treatment by his 
country. It is something to dwell upon with pure satisfaction." 

Brilliant as a spectacular display and cheering as a dem- 
onstration of friendliness from the world's Great Powers, 
the naval review was perhaps the most interesting feature 
of the jubilee celebration. The Queen was not present ; 
it was necessary at her age that she should rest after the 
strain of the great day in London. The Prince of Wales 
therefore took her place. 



244 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

There were twenty-five miles of battle-ships arranged 
in five parallel lines, each five miles long. The foreign 
ships were on the outside lines. The Prince and Princess 
of Wales, with the royal visitors, went through the lines 
in the Queen's yacht, the " Victoria and Albert," about ten 
o'clock, amid royal salutes and cheers. Then the Prince 
held a reception on the " Victoria and Albert " for the 
admirals, who all came in steam-launches except the Rus- 
sian and American ones; and these made far the most 
nautical and picturesque effect as they were rowed up in 
their long-boats by their own blue-jackets, who saluted 
with their oars. At nine o'clock the Prince gave an electric 
signal, and instantly every ship burst into a blaze of illumi- 
nation. Again the Prince went through the lines. The 
" Brooklyn " represented the United States, and it was 
agreed on all hands that her illumination was the most 
beautiful. What was very singular in connection with 
events a few months after, she was moored not far from 
the Spanish "Vizcaya." 

There have been few events that concerned the royal 
family of England during the last ten years. From time 
to time, one or another of the princesses, grand-daughters of 
Queen Victoria, has been married. Prince Alfred, Duke of 
Edinburgh, and Prince of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, lost his only 
son, who died in the Tyrol, February, 1899, while on a 
journey in search of health ; and the Prince himself died 
at Rosenau Castle, 30 July, 1900, from paralysis of the 
heart. He had been suffering from cancer of the tongue 
and larynx. The next heir to the dukedom of Siixe- 
Coburg was the third son of Queen Victoria, Arthur, Duke 
of Connaught ; but the people of Saxe-Coburg insisted that 
their Duke must be brought up as a German, live in Saxe- 
Coburg, and be educated in a German university. The 
young Prince, son of the Duke of Connaught, preferred 
to be an Englishman. The succession was then offered 
to the posthumous son of Prince Leopold, the deceased 
Duke of Albany. He accepted it, and is being educated 
to succeed his uncle. 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 245 

The Duke of York, son of the Prince of Wales, who mar- 
ried his second cousin, the Princess May of Teck, is a thor- 
ough sailor, though not the typical rough sailor of the old 
school. He is a genial, kindly, well-educated man. His 
wife, betrothed at first to his brother, the Duke of Clarence, 
is a great favorite with the English people. Her mother, 
Princess Mary of Cambridge, wife of the Duke of Teck, was 
always popular. The Englishmen on the street called her 
Aunt Mary. The Queen was very fond of her. She was 
the typical good Englishwoman. Her husband's family was 
never illustrious, but it was a family of shrewd sense and 
high integrity. The Tecks were a branch of the VViirtem- 
berg family. They began in a small way as country gentle- 
men. In the thirteenth century they were Counts of Teck, 
owning a strong castle and ruling over a small valley. 
They were men of enterprise and capacity, and many of 
them sought fortune in other lands. 

Their castle and their county, however, at last came into 
possession of their relatives and rivals, the family of Wiir- 
temberg, whose chief in the fifteenth century was Duke 
Eberhard, who said, on some occasion when at a feast of 
princes each boasted of his principality : " Of my land I 
can say but this : there is not a Swabian shepherd in it on 
whose knees, when weary, I could not lay my head and 
sleep, knowing he would protect me to the last drop of his 
blood." 

Eberhard without solicitation was made Duke of Wiir- 
temberg and Teck by the Emperor Maximilian in 1495. 
By virtue of his will, VViirtemberg and Teck enjoyed for 
three hundred years a more liberal government than any 
other German principality. In 1805, the Duke of Wiir- 
temberg and Teck was made King of Wiirtemberg by 
Napoleon. His brother Louis left a son Alexander, who 
entered the Austrian service. His son was made Duke of 
Teck. He married the English Princess Mary in 1866, 
and has since resided in England. 

Princess Mary was proud of her royal birth, but, says the 
" Spectator " : — 



246 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

" Like a royal personage in a fairy story, she went through 
life shedding royal smiles and royal kindnesses on great and 
small. And the best of it was that her royal smiles were en- 
tirely human, and her royal kindnesses — most of them — the 
simplest acts of charity and courtesy, such as any human being 
with a heart as warm, and a sympathy as alert, may render to 
another."! 

Her daughter, Princess May, now Duchess of York, will 
in all probability be some day Queen of England. The 
Duke of York has never taken any part in politics, but 
recently he has begun to make speeches on public occa- 
sions, as is expected of his father, the Prince of Wales, — 
a duty which did much to wear out the frail constitution 
of his grandfather, the Prince Consort. 

The Queen, who when she first came to the throne was 
looked upon as delicate, is now in her eighty-second year, 
with every prospect that she may yet live some years longer. 
Part of each winter she has been accustomed of late years 
to pass at Nice or in Italy. She is always received with 
cordiality when she passes through France. 

In 1897, a few weeks before the Jubilee, my son saw her 
at Nice, and stood near her as she was setting out for a 
drive. She noticed his bow and smiled ; the smile, he said, 
brightening up her face and giving it a wholly changed ex- 
pression. 

She has been earnestly desirous to conciliate her excitable 
Irish people. It was very brave on her part to pay her 
visit in 1900 to Ireland, which had shown itself so hostile to 
her on the occasion of her Jubilee, while the Irish Members 

1 Among the homely anecdotes told of her and her children is 
how they helped a poor woman to pick up sticks in Richmond Park ; 
how she pushed a perambulator for a nursemaid in difficulties ; how 
they cleared the road of broken glass to save the feet of horses ; how, 
caught in a heavy rain in Kew Gardens, she and her daughter shared 
their cloaks with two little girls in a similar plight, but who had no 
cloaks ; how one Christmas Eve the Duke, who was looking from 
his window, ran out of the house to buy up all the nuts and apples of 
an old woman in the street, that she might have a happy Christmas 
Day. 



THE DIAMOND JUBILEE 247 

in the House of Commons kept up persistent and virulent 
demonstrations of undisguised disaffection both to England 
and their Queen. But in Dublin the Irish people received 
her with enthusiasm. 

Her visit was regarded as a royal recognition of the 
splendid services of her Irish troops in the Transvaal, and 
of such Irishmen as Lord Roberts, Sir George White, Gen- 
eral Kelly- Kenny, and others. 

The Queen spent three weeks in Ireland, showing herself 
daily to her people, everywhere treated with cordiality and 
cheers. On one occasion she had driven some way into 
the country in an open carriage when a thunder-storm 
broke over her ; she refused to turn back, saying that people 
along her route were expecting her. Any other woman of 
eighty-one would certainly have avoided being wet through, 
but the Queen kept bravely on, and happily without any 
serious hurt. 

She also visited a Roman Catholic convent a few miles 
from Dublin. The Queen's love of children has been long 
well known, and probably nothing in her visit was more 
impressive than the review in Phoenix Park, when children 
numbering according to Irish newspapers more than fifty 
thousand, many of them brought by train from long distances, 
were collected to meet their sovereign. It was a kind 
thought, but it was also an eminently wise one ; it was cer- 
tain to appeal powerfully to the parents, and at the same 
time to imprint on susceptible child-natures a vivid memory 
never likely to be obliterated. 

The Queen's last act in Dublin was to address to the 
Lord Lieutenant one of those warm and grateful letters 
" which," says an English newspaper, " her subjects have 
learned to look for from their sovereign. When her Maj- 
esty says that, ' during the three weeks she has spent in this 
charming place she has been received by all ranks and 
creeds with an enthusiasm and affection which cannot be 
surpassed,' she is using no mere words of course. Her 
visit to Ireland has been an absolute and perfect success." 

The visit might have had its very tragic side had the 



248 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

attempt to assassinate the Prince of Wales in Belgium suc- 
ceeded. 

On April 14, the Prince, on his way to Copenhagen, had 
taken his seat in the railroad carriage, when a boy named 
Sipido, who had bought a penny ticket which admitted 
him to the platform, jumped on the step of the Prince's 
saloon carriage, and fired at him with a revolver. The 
weapon twice missed fire, and two bullets fortunately missed 
the Prince, who proceeded quietly on his journey. Sipido 
declared that he wished to kill the Prince "because he 
was an accomplice of Chamberlain in killing Boers ; " but a 
quantity of Anarchist rubbish was found in his pocket, and 
it is probable he was an ordinary shallow-brained boy ex- 
cited by attending meetings where he had heard vitriolic 
speeches, the natural effects of bitter journalism. How Dr. 
Leyds could have so far imposed upon the Flemings as to 
raise up the sympathies of the clerical party in favor of a 
state which, alone of all Christian states, now disfranchises 
and persecutes Roman Catholics, it is not easy to say. He 
has, however, saturated them with hatred of England, and 
this boy's insane attempt was the outcome. Sipido seems 
to have been one of a group of lads whose minds had been 
unwholesomely affected by their attendance at an Anarchist 
club, and who revelled in blood-and-thunder speeches. He 
had been taunted with want of courage by two of his com- 
panions, and to prove his manliness went and shot at a 
scion of royalty. 

In consideration of his youth (sixteen), he was com- 
mitted to a reformatory, but after three months, he either 
escaped or was released unconditionally. 



CHAPTER II 

THE queen's ministers FROM l8So TO I9OO 

T^HE Disraeli Ministry of 1874 which in 1S78 laid the 
■*- foundation of bitter enmity to England on the part of 
Russia, by its action at the Congress of Berlin, went out of 
ofiEice in 1880, and Mr. Disraeli was succeeded by Mr. Glad- 
stone. The Disraeli Ministry had made few changes in 
the domestic policy of England, as transmitted to it by the 
Liberal party, but its foreign policy was one of complete 
change, and was followed by severe conflicts, of which the 
evil effects endure to the present day. England barely 
escaped a war with Russia ; she became involved in war 
with the hill tribes in Afghanistan. The country began 
to dread the imperialism of a ruler who cherished Oriental 
ideas, and Mr. Gladstone came into power to reverse, if 
possible, the policy of his predecessor. The Transvaal 
and the Soudan were surrendered, to avoid war ; Gordon 
was abandoned at Khartoum ; and the price of Mr. Glad- 
stone's policy is being paid by England at the present day. 
The policy pursued in Egypt ended in a relief expedition 
to Khartoum, which, arriving too late to save the life of 
Gordon, stirred the hearts of Englishmen ; and although 
Mr. Gladstone had greatly enlarged the franchise, and both 
hoped and expected to find support among the rural popu- 
lation, he was defeated in Parliament. He found himself 
too ill supported to govern the country, and on his resigna- 
tion Lord Salisbury became prime minister. A general 
election took place to test whether the country would 
sustain a Liberal or a Conservative Ministry, the result of 
which was, that while a host of new electors cast their 
ballots for the first time, and Mr. Gladstone appealed to 



250 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

English voters to give him a majority which would relieve 
him in an emergency from relying in Parliament on the 
votes of the Irish members, he secured Liberal supporters 
only in the North of England, Wales, and Scotland ; the 
rest of England was far from voting according to his wishes. 
It was a great disappointment to Mr. Gladstone, and it 
caused him for the future to take Home Rule in Ireland 
for the main feature of his policy. To Englishmen the 
scheme of Home Rule, which would separate Ireland from 
the United Kingdom, seemed what Secession had seemed 
to our Northern States, which opposed the break-up of the 
Union. But Irish Home Rule had another danger ; namely, 
that if England were ever involved in war, Ireland, as she 
did in 1798, and aimed to do in 1848, would side with the 
enemies of England and give them a base of operations 
if they attempted invasion. Supported, however, by the 
party of Home Rule in the House of Commons, Mr. 
Gladstone expected to return to power, but he broke up 
his own party in England. His former followers, who 
refused to support his Irish policy, became what are now 
known as Liberal Unionists. 

Mr. Gladstone was prime minister from February to 
August, 1886, after which the Conservatives came back to 
power. But although Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule policy 
lost him his support in Parliament, his personal popularity 
was hardly impaired. 

To those who ask the question, " Why should not Ireland 
have her own Parliament and rule herself as successfully 
as Canada, the Cape, or the Australian colonies?" the 
answer is as I have said, that Ireland being the Ireland she 
is, is too near England to be trusted. If she were two 
thousand miles away in a distant sea, the experiment might 
be tried ; but even then England would probably hesitate 
to commit the fortunes of one-third of her population 
(the Protestants of Ulster, who have looked to the mother 
country for protection for three hundred years) to enemies 
whose national character is so excitable, turbulent, and 
unrestrainable as that of Irishmen. But Mr. Gladstone's 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 25 I 

splendid courage, his great learning, his persuasiveness, 
and his wonderful powers of oratory excited enthusiasm 
among all those brought personally into contact with him. 
'•' No man could be thrown into his society without feeling 
the magic of his personal influence," " Had he died," 
says one of his critics, '' at the age at which Sir Robert 
Peel was killed, he would have been acknowledged, beyond 
all question, as the greatest minister of his age." ^ 

When the massacres in Armenia took place in 1895, Mr. 
Gladstone was not in office, — he was not even in Parlia- 
ment, — but he used all his powers of eloquence, both by 
speech and by his pen, to rouse his countrymen to active 
intervention. It was Gladstone -like to have at one time 
inaugurated a peace policy at any cost, and to have urged 
a war policy upon his country at another time. I have 
spoken in a former chapter of that Eastern crisis, and in 
the light of events may presume to consider that Mr, 
Gladstone was in the wrong. He always wanted to hurry 
up reforms. Armenia is now practically at peace ; Crete 
is prospering under Prince George, the Commissioner of the 
Four Powers ; Greece has measured her strength against that 
of the Turks, and to the surprise of the civilized world the 
glory of the Thirty Days' War, both for courage and good 
discipline, lies with the Moslems. In 1S97 the Sultan was 
shorn of his gains by the action of the Powers. The result 
of Lord Salisbury's foreign policy, in very difficult circum- 
stances, was that no nation gained much advantage, or 
suffered much loss. England, indeed, learned, and will 
doubtless remember, that the Sultan absolutely cannot 

1 Mr. Gladstone's literary interests were multifold. But his pre- 
vailing attachment was to the works of Homer. Ten years ago I 
gave lectures, intended especially " for those who knew no Greek," 
on the Iliad and the Odyssey. They have never been published, 
but I have reason to know that they have e.xcited great interest in 
Homer in the minds of young people to whom, from time to time, I 
have imparted them. In preparing these lectures I felt myself 
brought under the influence of Mr. Gladstone, and I can never feel 
grateful enough for the pleasure and profit his writings on Homer 
have given me. 



252 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

keep his promises ; therefore nothing is to be gained by 
exacting them. 

Mr. Gladstone's vigorous vitality during his long and 
laborious career is one of the most remarkable things in 
modern history. Palmerston, Bismarck, and Pope Leo as 
statesmen, Radetzky and Von Moltke as generals, did much 
of their life-work after the age of seventy ; but Mr. Glad- 
stone, after he had passed that age, developed a perfectly 
new phase of oratorical power ; and from being a great 
parliamentary debater, whose speeches abounded in states- 
manship, and classical or literary allusions, he became a 
great master of the oratory of the platform and the open 
air. But his success in this branch of oratory tended during 
the later years of his life to injure him as a statesman and 
a thinker. It seems strange that a man of eighty should 
have become more boy-like as he advanced in years, and 
should have been carried away by the responsiveness of a 
large and uncritical audience. In the House of Commons 
his impulses must have been often placed under restraint. 

" I cannot but think," says Mr. Richard Holt Hobson, in 
the " Contemporary Review," " that a good deal of Mr. Glad- 
stone's rasher policy during the last few years of his life has 
been due to that higher estimate of vague popular sentiment, 
and the lower estimate of trained official knowledge, which he 
has insensibly inhaled from the popular audiences over which 
he has acquired an influence so powerful and so exhilarating. 

" During Mr. Gladstone's early parliamentary career, Mr. 
Bagehot described him as a 'problem.' He became more and 
more a problem as his life and his work went on. But through 
all his changes, his indiscretions, and his inconsistencies, he 
has the right to claim ' integrity of purpose' and a 'desire to 
learn' (and, indeed, to unlearn). Many of his most cherished 
early convictions he lived to unlearn, and at the same time im- 
posed his altered opinions somewhat forcibly on others. ' He 
could even speak with passionate condemnation of political 
creeds and political policies which, but a few months before, 
had been his own;' for his deeply religious mind regarded the 
opinions he took up as convictions sent to him from heaven. 
In some of his chief lines of policy he brought England over to 
his own views; and Mr. Hutton, whom I have already quoted. 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 253 

gives a long list of what his foreign policy accomplished, — 
for Neapolitan prisoners, for Italy, and for Greece. But he 
adds, ' On the other hand, Mr. Gladstone's audacious donning 
of the penitential white sheet on behalf of his country at the 
time of the retrocession of the Transvaal, just after the defeat 
and disgrace of Majuba Hill, — perhaps his boldest act of public 
humiliation, although it was not altogether unpopular with the 
working classes at the time, — probably did more to undermine 
his influence as an English statesman than to confirm it.' " 

These lines were written in 1894, before the world had 
any prevision of the terrible sequel to that act of national 
altruism, — an ideal which the great leader pursued in that 
case, and in others, with a blind and indiscriminate zeal 
which risked all consequences. 

But those who most lament the occasional indiscretions 
of the Grand Old Englishman of the Nineteenth Century, 
cannot but acknowledge the benefits that he conferred upon 
his country during his four administrations. For some of 
these he was personally responsible. He secured to trav- 
ellers whose means are limited what in England are called 
parliamentary trains ; he made the railroads take children 
at half price ; he abolished the stamp duty on newspapers, 
the sixpenny tax on every advertisement, and the tax on 
paper, and thus enabled the workingman to take his daily 
newspaper ; he lightened the burden of taxation, and im- 
proved the relations between tenant and landlord in Ire- 
land. He disestablished the English Church in Ireland, 
which had been one of the standing grievances of the Irish 
people. Earnest Churchmen acquiesced in its disendow- 
ment, believing that church work would not prosper unless 
a manifest wrong had been repealed. Now the principle 
that prevails in American churches has been introduced 
into Ireland ; the congregations of the Anglican commun- 
ion support their pastors. The ballot was bestowed on 
voters, though it may not fulfil all that was hoped by those 
who considered that its adoption would put an end to 
fraudulent voting and intimidation. Education among the 
masses was promoted by the influence of Mr, Gladstone. 



254 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

He was a great reader, an enthusiastic horseman, and a good 
musician. We all know how he felled trees in the park at 
Hawarden. But I have told of his private life elsewhere.-' 

In April, 1898, the public knew that Mr. Gladstone was 
dying, and Lord Salisbury was reported very ill at the same 
time. Mr. Gladstone's last illness was long and very pain- 
ful ; it was a case of tumor in the face, which at first had 
been diagnosed as cancer, but he earnestly requested that 
no bulletins should be issued, and no details of the prog- 
ress of the disease given to the public. He named Mr. 
John Morley his literary executor. He died May 19, 
189S. His coffin was carried to London, away from the 
home he had so dearly loved, and was placed upon a dais 
in the centre of Westminster Hall, where it lay in state for 
three days. Two hundred and fifty thousand people, it is 
thought, passed reverently through the hall to take their 
leave of what was mortal of the great Englishman. All was 
very simple, but the more impressive. 

A few days later, when the United States was listening 
for the first echoes from the guns at Santiago, Mr. Glad- 
stone was buried in Westminster Abbey. His most inti- 
mate friends attended the coffin, and Lord Salisbury, Lord 
Rosebery, and many others, both political opponents and 
personal friends. The Prince of Wales and the Duke of 
York brought up the line of pall-bearers. Representatives 
from the House of Commons, from the diplomatic corps, 
from the universities, from the army and navy, and many 
other public bodies, filled the great cathedral. Among the 
hymns on the occasion was " Rock of Ages," all the congre- 
gation joining in it as it was sung. It had been an especial 
favorite with Mr. Gladstone, and he had made a translation 
of it into Latin verse. At the close of the service, read by 
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Prince of Wales, who 
stood near Mrs. Gladstone, bent over and kissed her hand. 

" This admirable lady had been so intimately associated with 
the work and personality of her husband that in popular esteem 

^ "England in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 40S-410. 




MRS. GLADSTONE. 



The QUEEN'S MINISTERS 255 

and affection they were almost one. For sixty years of their 
married life she was constantly shielding him from bores, in- 
trusion, over-exertion, exposure to fatigue, and all sorts of minor 
troubles, anxieties, and annoyances. 

" In a letter written by Mr. Gladstone in 1S55, he spoke with 
shrewd self-knowledge of his own ' vulnerable temper and im- 
petuous moods.' To soothe that temper, to modify those 
moods, was the main part of Mrs. Gladstone's work in life. 
Her husband was screened from every breath of annoyance. 
No ' evil report ' was, if it was possible to intercept it, allowed 
to reach his ear. If a generally friendly newspaper ventured on 
an occasional criticism, it was conveniently mislaid. If the 
conversation at dinner took a distasteful turn, it was promptly 
interrupted by some artless inquiry about the children's whoop- 
ing-cough, or the decorations of the dinner-table. Eager lis- 
teners, who saw the great man's eyes begin to lighten, and hoped 
to hear him thunder, were immensely disgusted, and ascribed to 
silliness what was really a carefully organized and long practised 
system of tactics. The system had its obvious drawbacks, but 
it was the deliberate opinion of one who knew both wife and 
husband well, that but for the unremitting solicitude which 
warded off all of the minor and most of the major troubles of 
life, — all the imaginary ones and most of the real, — the ' vul- 
nerable temper' would long ago have been mortally wounded, 
and the ' impetuous moods ' would have wrecked the political 
career." 

Nor is this most beautiful side of Mrs. Gladstone's 
woman's life the only one that claims at once our sympathy 
and admiration. Outside her own family, and beyond 
the confines of Hawarden estate and parish, which always 
occupied the first place in her loving nature, she did other 
practical and patient works for the good of her fellow men 
and women. She was one of the first supporters of the 
House of Charity for Distressed Persons, founded in Soho, 
London, in 1846. In this house she may be said to have 
graduated in the art of administering relief to the needy of 
the metropolis, and there she first learned how much misery 
there is outside the ranks of the raggedly poor or obviously 
destitute. 

Having occasion to observe, in connection with another 
House of Charity intended for a different class, how many 



256 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

applications for shelter after nightfall had to be refused, 
Mrs. Gladstone threw herself into the work of raising funds 
to hire and fit up a large block of disused buildings in the 
neighborhood of Leicester Square, and there to provide 
temporary accommodation for the houseless, for in 1863 
the work-houses in London had no " casual wards." This, 
which was then a novel form of charity, proved singularly 
successful, and Mrs. Gladstone was by all regarded as the 
founder and mainspring of the movement for founding 
refuge homes. It was in consequence of the interest thus 
attracted to the condition of the outcast poor in London 
streets, that the Homeless Poor Act became law, and Lon- 
don work-houses became bound to make special provision 
for tramps or casual travellers, at the cost of a rate levied 
on the whole metropolis. When cholera prevailed in Eng- 
land in 1866, it found in Mrs. Gladstone a brave and 
practical foe. She went almost daily to Whitechapel, into 
the horrible hospital wards, with sympathy and cheering 
words and flowers, giving fresh courage by her presence 
and example not only to the sick, but to doctors and 
nurses. When all was at an end she took a large part in 
securing a house at Clapton for boys left orphans by the 
cholera ; while Mrs. Tait, wife of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, established a similar orphanage for girls at 
Fulham. This set the example of attaching to nearly all 
the hospitals of London " Free Convalescent Homes for 
the Poor." 

It is impossible here to enumerate half the works of be- 
nevolence in which Mrs. Gladstone actively interested her- 
self. Almost everybody knows of her Orphanage at the gates 
of Hawarden Castle, and her almshouse for aged women. 
Some one recently bore witness that in respect to one 
of the charities that I have not found space to mention, 
Mrs. Gladstone's connection with its management was so 
thorough and consistent that it might have been supposed 
it was her only charity. 

She died at Hawarden Castle in June, 1900, and was 
buried beside her husband in Westminster Abbey, accord- 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 257 

ing to a promise made her by the Dean of Westminster at 
the time of Mr. Gladstone's funeral. 

One drawback to Mr. Gladstone's active exertions in his 
latter years (and yet he did not allow it seriously to impair 
his activity) was that he suffered for a while from cataract, 
caused by an injury inflicted upon one of his eyes by a 
hard ginger cake thrown at him by a woman in a crowd. 
An operation was performed when the eye was in the right 
condition for the knife, and, like most modern operations 
for cataract, it was attended with little pain, and was 
entirely successful. 

Lord Salisbury, like many other Englishmen prominent in 
public life, has changed many of his views since he entered 
into politics, but it must be remembered that the condition 
of things in England since 1854 has changed too. He has 
passed through three marked stages in his poHtical career. 
He has been the independent Tory of the old school, the 
foreign minister in Lord Beaconsfield's imperialistic cabi- 
net, and is the present head of the Conservative party. 

" As such, he is said to be ready to play many cards once held 
by his political opponents. He favors measures that will lighten 
the burdens on agriculture, he inclines to grant allowances and 
pensions to the aged, and he would like to see each English 
laborer attached to the land of his birth by owning his own 
home. It is also thought that he would further a joint organiza- 
tion that might unite employers and employed. If he, or his 
successor, can carry out these things, ' they will render no mean 
service, not only to English Conservatism, but to the Conserva- 
tism of Europe ; to all, indeed, who hope and trust that society 
may be served without recourse to the rough surgery of revolu- 
tion.'" 

But on three things Lord Salisbury is absolutely conserva- 
tive : he will have no tampering with the constitution of 
the United Kingdom ; no party and no nation shall flout 
the English flag ; and he will not consent that the conduct 
of foreign affairs shall pass out of the hands of the Foreign 
Office into those of the Fourth Estate, or even those of the 
Third. 

17 



258 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Lord Salisbury's first sjjeech was made in Parliament 
when he was Lord Robert Cecil, in 1854. For a short time, 
some years later, he sat in the House of Commons as Lord 
Cranbourne, until, by the death of his father, he became 
Marquis of Salisbury, and passed into the House of Lords. 
His parliamentary experience in the House of Commons has 
been of the greatest value to him, as it is to every other 
English statesman who aspires to take a prominent part in 
the government of his country. As I have just said, the 
condition of things in England during the half-century or 
more that Lord Salisbury has been a prominent politician 
has changed — 

" changed even to the point of making men like Lord Salisbury 
advocates of measures which they formerly condemned. Lord 
Salisbury, indeed, became the opponent of certain bits of legis- 
lation to which he once appeared tenderly attached. But his 
convictions have remained as unshaken in the main as the 
general lines of his character." 

From a very early day he acquired the reputation of 
saying indiscreet things in public speeches ; and in the 
present year, when all England was enthusiastic over Irish 
generals, Irish fusileers, and the reception of the Queen in 
Ireland, he took the opportunity to assure the Irish that 
they need not expect especial legislation in favor of their 
aspirations. 

He first occupied a prominent political position when he 
accompanied Mr. Disraeli to the Congress of Berlin as his 
colleague and supporter. Disraeli had a genius for selecting 
men of ability, and for furthering their advancement, and in 
Lord Salisbury he seems to have felt great confidence, 
though more than once the "noble Lord " had been opposed 
to him in political emergencies. 

Lord Salisbury, on his return to England, was sent to con- 
fer with other statesmen at Constantinople, after which he 
succeeded Lord Derby at the Foreign Office in Lord Bea- 
consfield's cabinet, and entered on an active and arduous 
career. The Beaconsfield cabinet went out of power before 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 259 

he had been in it three years, but in 1S85 Lord Salisbury 
became Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary. In the 
mean time Mr. Gladstone had abandoned the Soudan, and 
had made a free gift to the Boers of their South African 
Repubhc, exacting only the condition that, in their foreign 
relations, they should acknowledge the suzerainty of the 
Queen. 

Lord Salisbury, in accepting the Premiership vacated by 
Mr. Gladstone, could not undo the work of his predecessor. 
He had to accept it and its consequences, and to shape his 
policy accordingly. 

" He assumed the liabilities and embarrassments of Mr. Glad- 
stone's administration, paying debts which he had not contracted, 
continuing to repose confidence in agents whom he had not 
chosen, and trying to solve problems which he had not set." 

But, prudent and fortunate, Lord Salisbury's administra- 
tion seems to have been a success. In the present war with 
the Transvaal the people support him with enthusiasm. The 
honor of England is at stake ; and what Englishman will 
not make any sacrifice to uphold it? 

He insisted that the French expedition should retreat 
from Fashoda, and not render nugatory the Sirdar's victory 
at Omdurman, and he directed Sir Edmund Monson, the 
English Ambassador at Paris, to make an after-dinner speech 
assuring the French public that England would endure no 
more pin-pricks from either the French press or the French 
Government. He made large concessions to France, how- 
ever, in Nigeria, and has left the French to struggle alone 
with the coming Mohammedan problem in Central Africa ; 
he has not interfered with their unhappy policy in Madagas- 
car, nor with their claims in Siam. 

In the Venezuela Question, started on the world when 
the attention of all men was occupied by what was passing 
in the East, and which some people think withheld the 
English Government from taking a more active part in 
Cretan and Armenian affairs, Lord Salisbury appears to 
have acted in a very conciliatory spirit, though in December, 



26o LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

1895, ^^ ^^5 confronted by a sharp despatch from Secretary 
Olney and a similar message to Congress from President 
Cleveland, — a man far less likely than Lord Salisbury to in- 
dulge himself in a public document with incautious words. 
The boundary dispute between Venezuela and British 
Guiana was a very ancient one, and, as neither party cared 
much for the territory in dispute, it had been hanging on 
unsettled for a number of years. But gold had been dis- 
covered on the border, and the few miles of disputed land 
became valuable, especially to English gold-seekers. A dis- 
pute arose between these strangers and the Venezuelans, 
in which Englishmen conceived themselves to be wronged, 
and they appealed to their government. It was a great sur- 
prise to all when Mr. Cleveland sent his message to Con- 
gress, and his Secretary of State addressed a letter to Lord 
Salisbury, demanding, as the guardian of Venezuela under 
the Monroe doctrine, an immediate settlement of the dis- 
pute. In all subsequent proceedings on the subject, " Mr. 
Cleveland showed himself," says Mr. Justin McCarthy, " the 
same cool^ sensible, conciliatory statesman he had proved 
himself to be in all his previous career." Nevertheless, the 
affair for some weeks stirred up a little ferment in both 
countries ; and, as I have said, it is thought to have im- 
peded vigorous action on England's part on the Armenian 
and Cretan questions. However, the affairs of Armenia and 
Crete came all right in the end, and so did the boundary 
dispute between British Guiana and Venezuela, which was 
settled by a conference in which United States Commis- 
sioners, all men of high standing and great worth, took part 
as the advocates of Venezuela. By the time the Conference 
gave its decision, October 3, 1899, few persons probably 
cared much which party might be favored by the award. 
For some years Venezuela has been in such a chronic state 
of revolution that she can have taken little interest in a 
matter which at one time threatened strife for her sake 
between two great civilized nations. 

I repeat that all that is most interesting in the history of 
England during the last years of the nineteenth century 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 26 1 

may best be related in that part of my book which con- 
cerns " Europe in Africa." 

Lord Salisbury, like Mr. Gladstone, was most fortunate 
in a wife. Lady Salisbury was the invaluable helpmeet 
of her husband, and was deeply regretted by all who knew 
her. Probably the last months of her life were clouded 
by anxiety for her son, Lord Edward Cecil, who was one 
of the force besieged in Mafeking. 

" It was for her friends and family she lived, and she had her 
reward in their unstinted love and admiration. . . . To lose 
such a partner after more than forty years of happy wedded life 
is to suffer a bereavement which is irreparable. . . . She was 
her husband's helpmeet in the truest sense of the word, not by 
virtue of mere incurious silence, but by active gifts of intelligent 
counsel and advice." 

It is not a little significant of the great changes that have 
taken place in England during the reign of Queen Victoria 
that the great statesmen of the present day have, with hardly 
an exception, changed, or greatly modified, their early po- 
litical views. Mr. Gladstone began life as a disciple of 
George Canning ; at college he became a Tory of the old 
school ; then a Conservative ; then a Liberal ; and toward 
the end of his life he broke up his party on the Irish ques- 
tion of Home Rule and was accounted a Radical. 

Lord Salisbury was in 1S54 an aristocrat in politics and 
an uncompromising Tory. He is still a Conservative, but 
a Conservative who advocates liberal measures that were 
considered almost revolutionary when he entered the 
House of Commons. 

Mr. Chamberlain boldly proclaimed himself an advanced 
Radical, was at one time, together with his friend. Sir 
Charles Dilke, a supporter of Home Rule for Ireland, 
broke away from his party in 18S6, and is now, in a Con- 
servative Cabinet, Secretary for the Colonies, over whose 
loyal adhesion to the mother country he persists in keep- 
ing a firm hand. 

Lord Rosebery, now Liberal leader in the House of 



262 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Lords, began by opposing liberalism. He belongs to 
a great family, and was born to a large estate. He married 
a daughter of the house of Rothschild. He has a lordly 
house near Edinburgh, another in London at the West 
End, and a beautiful English country residence. His 
social powers are very great. He is a charming host, 
a brilliant and sympathetic conversationalist, an admirable 
lecturer, an accomplished writer, a skilled yachtsman, and 
his horses have won two Derbys on the turf. 

To him many have long looked as the man who might 
steer England through all her dangers, but as yet he has 
not found that opportunity. A born orator, it was his mis- 
fortune to have missed valuable training as a debater in 
the House of Commons. He too early succeeded his 
grandfather in the peerage, and he had to begin his polit- 
ical career in the House of Lords. Anxious in some way 
to be useful to his country, he early devoted himself to 
municipal aiTairs. London outside " the City " (which is 
but a small patch in the great metropolis) was governed 
by old-fashioned parochial vestries, and, to a certain extent, 
by a more recent institution called the Metropolitan Board 
of Works. Lord Rosebery, joined by Lord Randolph 
Churchill, reformed this system, and succeeded in displacing 
it in favor of the London County Council, — an elective 
body responsible to its constituents and to the public. 

" I think," says Mr. Justin McCarthy, " that it would be 
hardly possible for a man of Lord Rosebery's rank and cul- 
ture and tastes to give a more genuine proof of patriotic pub- 
lic spirit than he did when he threw himself heart and soul 
into the business of the Municipal Council." 

When Mr. Gladstone resigned on the question of Home 
Rule in 1894, the Queen sent for Lord Rosebery and 
wished him to form an administration ; but there were 
keen jealousies among the Liberal leaders. Sir William 
Vernon Harcourt thought he had won for himself the right 
to succeed Mr. Gladstone as Prime Minister. Lord Rose- 
bery, however, accepted the post offered him, but his 



THE QUEEN'S MINISTERS 263 

premiership lasted a very short time ; he was defeated in 
ParHament on a vote of supply ; and as this was virtually a 
vote of censure on the Secretary of State for War, the min- 
istry resigned, Parliament was dissolved, and a General 
Election followed. Then was seen the full force of the 
reaction which had begun to set in against the policy of 
Mr. Gladstone. 

"The Conservatives came into power with a large majority. 
Lord Rosebery became merely the leader of the Liberal party 
in opposition, and even this position he did not long retain. 
Some of the most brilliant speeches he ever made in the House 
of Lords were made at this time, but somehow people began to 
think that his heart was not in the leadership, and before long 
it was made known to the country that he had ceased to be the 
Liberal commander-in-chief." 

Some said that Lord Rosebery did not see his way to 
agitating the country as Mr. Gladstone would have done 
on the question of Turkey and Armenia ; others thought 
him unwilling to adopt the policy of Mr. Gladstone in 
South Africa, as tending to weaken the supremacy and 
prestige of his country. 

Lord Rosebery is now classed as an Imperialist. Sir 
William Vernon Harcourt, Mr. John Morley, and their 
followers are termed by their opponents Litde Englanders. 
" The Litde Englander," as Mr. McCarthy describes him, 
"believes that England's noblest work for a long time to 
come will be found in the endeavor to spread peace, 
education, and happiness among the people who already 
acknowledge England's supremacy." 

Again, in concluding a brief sketch of Lord Rosebery, 
the same impartial writer ends it with these words : 
"Though he became Prime Minister only to be defeated, 
and leader of the Liberal party only to resign, he is at 
this moment the one public man in England about whom 
people are asking one another whether the time for him to 
take his real position is not near at hand." 

But among leading statesmen in England at the present 
day the most prominent is Mr. Joseph Chamberlain. Lord 



264 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Rosebery has political opponents, but may be said to have 
no enemies ; Mr. Chamberlain has many, both political and 
personal. He is the son of a manufacturer in Birmingham, 
which in his youth was the most violently Radical great city 
in England. It also had the distinction of being the city 
where municipal affairs were the most admirably managed, 
and it was in connection with the city government of 
Birmingham that Mr. Chamberlain won his first fame. 
When elected to Parliament it was as an advanced Radical, 
a democrat of the levelling order, a more aggressive demo- 
crat than Mr. Bright or Mr. Cobden had ever been. 
Here are the impressions of one who heard him make his 
first speech in the House of Commons : — 

"Judging from his previous political speeches members had 
set him down as a wild republican, and they expected to see a 
rough and shaggy man, dressed with an uncouth disregard for 
the ways of society, a sort of Birmingham Orson, who would 
probably scowl fiercely at his opponents in the House, and 
deliver his opinions in a voice of thunder. The political opin- 
ions which his speech expressed were such as every one might 
have expected to come from so resolute a democrat, but their 
quiet, self-possessed delivery greatly astonished those who had 
expected to see and hear a mob-orator." 

Ever since then Mr. Chamberlain has proved himself 
one of the ablest debaters in the House of Commons. He 
disappointed the Home Rule party by breaking away from 
it and resigning his place in Mr. Gladstone's government. 
He ranked himself thenceforth not only as an opponent of 
Home Rule, but as a Conservative and anti-Radical. The 
change took place in less than three months. Mr. Glad- 
stone began as a Tory and grew by slow degrees into a 
Radical, but Mr. Chamberlain's conversion was accom- 
plished with the suddenness of a miracle ; yet no man has 
ever dared to say that it was prompted by any selfish 
motive, or that it was not the work of genuine conviction, 
such as in the language of theology is called " a change of 
heart." 



CHAPTER III 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 



A MONG the most brilliant wars in the latter half of the 
■^^- nineteenth century (by "brilliant" I mean the most 
remarkable for courage, daring, and resources) have been 
the Frontier Wars of India ; yet as they led to no visible 
success that the general public can appreciate, they are 
very little known. Those who fought in them, and the 
correspondents who recorded them, sometimes complain 
that deeds of far less personal prowess have received world- 
wide recognition, medals and honors, while heroes of the 
frontier have been overlooked and forgotten. 

It is impossible here to give anything like a complete 
account of what took place in northwestern India in 
1895, 1897, and 1898. I cannot even spare space for an 
abridged account of all the military operations. I think it 
best therefore to select one event, — a very important one. 
It was the outbreak of the Frontier War ; and many persons 
think that had the British Government taken no part in the 
dispute concerning succession among those who aspired to 
the Mehtarship of Chitral, England might have been spared 
a great loss of gallant lives, and the Government of India 
an expenditure of many millions of pounds. 

The northwestern frontier of India is very little known 
to most of us, I humbly confess that until recently my 
own ideas upon the subject were by no means clear. We 
all know in a general way that British India on the north 
touches Afghanistan and much recently acquired Russian 
territory, from both of which it is divided by almost impas- 
sable chains of mountains, — the Hindoo Koosh and the 
Himalayas, 



266 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The Punjaub, we all know, is the great province of north- 
ern India; northeast of it, under its own Maharajah, is 
Kashmir. But the mountains and their valleys to the 
north and west are inhabited by wild tribes, splendid 
fighters, men of great intelligence, who have never made 
submission to the Ameer of Afghanistan or to any of the 
rulers of India. They are known under the common name 
of Pathans, as the inhabitants of the Scotch mountains were 
all known as Highlanders. They are divided, like the 
Highlanders, into numerous tribes or clans, Afridis, Swatis, 
Mahmonds, Ozakais, Hanzu, Chitralis, etc. ; and some 
of the tribes are divided and subdivided. For instance, 
the Afridis have eight clans. Constantly at feud among 
themselves, they unite at once to oppose a common enemy. 
It is thus that G. W. Steevens opens his chapter on the fron- 
tier question in his little volume entitled " India " : — 

" The frontier question is like the frontier country. ToilfuUy 
surmount one branch of it, and it is commanded and controlled 
by another. Struggle through the pass of one problem, and it 
opens onto a worse tangle of others. Take a typical case, — 
Chitral; at the first reconnaissance nothing could be simpler. 
Obviously, for a host of reasons, we ought to keep clear of 
Chitral. An invasion of India in anything like force from 
that side is all but inconceivable. The country, as well as all 
the country between it and India, is infernal, the inhabitants 
devilish. Before we began to meddle they were content to ex- 
ercise their devilishness upon each other. Our interference 
brought on us two costly wars. . . . Decidedly we ought never 
to have gone to Chitral ; ought never to have stayed there ; ought, 
if we must stay there, to have communicated with it, as orig- 
inally, from Gilgit. The whole business is a palpable, costly, 
ghastly blunder. 

" Thus triumphantly we crown that height, and then, unfortu- 
nately for our comfort of mind, we begin to observe fresh heights 
to be crowned above us. . . . The more you look at it, the more 
it mazes you — point topping point, and argument crossing ar- 
gument. And that is only the very tiniest fraction of the whole 
frontier question. There are a dozen places like Chitral, each 
with a tangled problem of its own, and above all are the greater 
questions, — the influence on India proper, the defence against 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 26/ 

Russia, — with all their branches. And the peculiarly exas- 
perating feature of these difficulties is that every action we 
take seems to leave them more confounded than before." 

The Pathans are all Mohammedans, but they are not all 
of the same sect. The men of most influence in these 
tribes are the mullahs, holy men who are supposed in 
some way to have attained especial sanctity. Some ten 
years ago I read an amusing article, making fun of appre- 
hensions felt by the Government of India concerning the 
Alkund of Swat. Who or what, it was asked, could the 
Alkund of Swat be? He was one of these mullahs; and 
England in the past six years has had abundant reason to 
know him and his fellows. 

Now, England, ever since I can remember, has had 
jealousy of Russia on the brain. She conceived it her duty, 
when a scientific frontier between India and Afghanistan 
was laid out, to extend her " sphere of influence " over the 
mountain tribesmen, and to establish British outposts along 
the frontiers. The Chitralis had a country close up to 
Afghanistan, and a pass of their own over which no army 
could transport guns, baggage, and ammunition. Their 
chief town was Chitral, and it had a small fort very badly 
situated on the bank of a river, and completely commanded 
by hills. 

The Chitralis were good fighters, bold riders, and strong 
swimmers, loving polo and the dance. Their country is 
surrounded by magnificent mountains and their valleys pro- 
duce abundantly fruit and flowers. The ruler of Chitral 
was called the Mehtar ; his residence was in the little fort 
with his wives and their families. In 1892, Aman-ul-Mulk, 
the "Great Mehtar," died. It was a thing not before 
known in the history of Chitral that a Mehtar should die a 
natural death ; according to the custom of the country, he 
should have been assassinated. But Aman-ul-Mulk had 
been greatly respected by his people, and had reigned 
many years. He left as many sons by different wives as 
Phrygian Priam, but of these only four were considered of 
sufficiently royal lineage to succeed him as Mehtar. Their 



268 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

names were Nizam, Afzul, Amir, and Shuja ; the last a little 
boy. Nizam, the eldest, was visiting British India when 
his father died, so his place as Mehtar was seized by 
Afzul, his next brother ; and Nizam sought protection at 
Gilgit, two hundred and twenty miles east of Chitral, where 
lived an English agent in charge of a British garrison. 
Afzul-ul-Mulk had no fears of his brothers, Amir and Shuja, 
— the one was weak, the other a child; but he had not 
bethought him of his uncle Sher Afzul, who had for years 
been living as an exile at the court of Cabul. He came 
suddenly to Chitral, and tried to enter the fort secretly by 
night ; the guards, however, opposed him. Afzul-ul-Mulk, 
the reigning Mehtar, hearing the noise, came from his 
chamber, and was shot in the back. At once Sher Afzul 
seized the reins of government. But as suddenly as he 
had arrived from Cabul, came Nizam from Gilgit. The 
troops collected to oppose him went over to his side at 
once, and his uncle Sher Afzul went once more into exile. 

Nizam was a cultivated man, and friendly to the English 
Government, which sent a mission to offer him the support 
formerly given to his father. His subjects were, however, 
not well pleased with the civilized ideas he had acquired 
in British India, and while he was out hawking, his brother 
Amir, or some of his followers, shot him dead. 

It is supposed that this murder was suggested by Umra 
Khan, lord of the neighboring country of Jandol, who was 
father-in-law to Amir, and who, after making a tool of that 
weak young man, was ambitious of acquiring for himself the 
Mehtarship of Chitral. 

Umra Khan was a formidable chief. He was a hand- 
some man, and a man of marked ability. An English 
political officer was at Chitral with an escort of eight Sikhs 
when Nizam was murdered, and Amir insisted that he 
should, on the part of the British Government, recognize his 
right to the throne. This, Lieutenant Gurdon refused to 
do. He would write to his superior officer at Gilgit on the 
subject if Amir would forward the letter. This, Amir de- 
clined to do, and Gurdon continued to maintain that he 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 269 

had no right to pledge his government to give the usurping 
Mehtar recognition. 

Matters became such that Gurdon, the English political 
agent, moved into the fort with his eight Sikhs, where he 
received a reinforcement of fifty Sikhs of his own escort, 
whom, not apprehending danger, he had left at Mastaj, 
sixty-five miles from Chitral. Nothing but the coolness of 
Gurdon saved him from being slain, for the Chitralis 
were maddened by excitement. Meantime, as Umra Khan 
had hoped, his son-in-law called upon him for assistance. 

As soon as Mr. Robertson, the British agent at Gilgit 
(which is an outpost in the northern part of Kashmir), 
heard what was taking place at Chitral, he started for it 
with two hundred and eighty men of the Kashmir Rifles, 
and thirty-three Sikhs under Lieutenant Harley. He was 
also accompanied by Captain Baird, Captain Campbell, and 
Dr. Whitchurch. 

At once, as Gurdon's superior officer, he wrote to Umra 
Khan to leave Chitral territory and return to his own 
country of Jandol. A wealthy native of Chitral assisted 
the English to provision the little fort for a siege, and 
moved into it himself with about eighty Chitralis. The 
English professed to recognize Shuja-ul-Mulk as Mehtar, 
and to have deposed Amir-ul-Mulk for treachery. Both 
these princes were in the fort, but the latter was a prisoner. 

Shah Afzul meantime had come back from Cabul, and was 
in alliance with Umra Kahn. News at the close of March 
was brought to the fort that it was to be besieged. The 
little garrison decided to send out a party to reconnoitre. 
It was a most unhappy decision. The p^rty consisted of 
two hundred men of the Kashmir Rifles, who had never 
been in action, a few Sikhs, hospital assistants, and stretcher- 
bearers. Captain Campbell was in command of the party. 
Captain Baird, Lieutenants Townshend and Gurdon, and 
Dr. Whitchurch accompanied him. Harley and his Sikhs 
were left to guard the fort. There were only half a dozen 
white faces in the little band. 

It met with disaster. The Chitralis and Jandolis were 



270 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

around them on the hills' in force, and strongly posted. 
Baird was shot down ; Whitchurch at once hastened to his 
side. The wound was mortal, but he was placed in a dooly 
and carried to the rear. Both sides fought bravely, but 
soon the officer in command of the British force found his 
enemy in so strong a position, behind stone breastworks, 
that there was nothing for his little party, which was with- 
out support, to do but to retreat. Captain Campbell was 
wounded in the knee, but insisted that he must be lifted 
on his horse and go back into the fighting. The native 
hospital assistant remonstrated with him, but these were his 
last words. A bullet went smashing through his head, and 
he lay dead beside the horse of Captain Campbell. 

The little party, now retiring, were two miles from the 
fort. It grew dark when they reached the Chitral village. 
The inhabitants, seeing them retreat, and anxious — both 
men and women — to be on the winning side, turned 
against them. Robertson, a solitary horseman, galloped to 
the fort to get a handful of Harley's Sikhs to assist them. 
Fired at with bullets and assailed with sticks and stones, 
Robertson happily was not once hit. On nearing the fort, 
" Fifty Sikhs to cover the retirement ! " he shouted. At 
once they marched out of the gate, ready for action, with 
Harley at their head. 

There is a touching story of Gurdon's syce, who brought 
him his pony from the fort, which he refused to mount, and 
the faithful groom was shot dead while leading it away. 

At last all were in the fort. Then came the inquiry, 
" Where is Baird? Where is Whitchurch, the doctor? " 

Baird had not been brought in ; Whitchurch was nowhere ; 
Campbell had fainted from his wound. The wounded were 
all asking for the doctor. 

Baird was a great favorite. His genial, kindly ways had 
endeared him to every one. 

Hampered by the dooly, the small hospital party, con- 
sisting of the doctor, a dozen of the Kashmir troops, and 
four stretcher-bearers, had been left behind. Darkness was 
coming on. They lost their way. They perceived that 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2J\ 

fighting was going on in advance of them. " There 's 
another way to the fort, — a roundabout way," some 
one cried out. " But it is three miles round." 

" Then a weak voice called the doctor from the stretcher. 

"'I am only hindering you. It's all up with me, I know. 
Leave me, and look after the safety of those brave fellows, and 
your own. ' 

" ' What say you, my men,' cried the doctor, repeating the 
dying officer's request ; 'shall we leave your wounded officer 
in the field, to look after our own skins ? ' 

" ' We 'II take the river bank, sahib ! ' was the quick response 
of the stretcher-bearers; and not one dreamed of laying his 
burden down. 

" But the enemy soon perceived them. One after another 
was killed, and as a stretcher-bearer fell, one of the soldiers, 
without a word, took his place. 

" At last all were gone. It was impossible to carry the 

^<^cher further ; the Sepoys were all wanted to fight. Then 
..c doctor put his arm firmly round his patient's waist and lifted 
him from the stretcher. 

" ' Whitchurch ! I protest against it ! Whitchurch, are you 
mad ? For God's sake, save yourself ! Leave me ! leave me ! ' 

" But the doctor would not give him up, and carried him as 
best he could, over the rough ground in the darkness, wounded 
himself by a bullet in his heel. But the}^ reached the fort. 
The gate was flung open, and they staggered in." 

And that was how the V. C. — the Victoria Cross — was 
nobly won by the doctor. 

" It was never won more splendidly," said Baird, as with 
almost his dying breath he reported all that had taken 
place to Mr. Robertson. 

From that time for forty-two days the fort was closely 
invested. The enemy could fire into its enclosure and pick 
off any man who showed himself. An attempt was made 
to burn the watch-tower ; twice the covered way by which 
the garrison drew water was nearly destroyed. 

The besieged knew that relief would be sent to them. 
Upheld by the confidence of the English officers and that 
of the undaunted Sikhs, all felt sure that it was coming, — 



2/2 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

but would it come in time ? Already the poor fellows looked 
pinched and hollow-eyed from insufficient food, as only half- 
rations were served out to them. What little rum they had 
was reserved for the Sikhs. " Brave fellows ! they deserve 
it," said their officers. To the Kashmir Rifles a little tea 
was served out every second day. 

The British officers, early in the siege, had killed and 
salted their ponies. The Sikhs could not touch such 
food. They ate only their cakes of flour and water, and 
went back uncomplainingly to their posts. 

At last the enemy took possession of a summer house in 
a garden, about eighty yards from the fort. Day and 
night, for two nights and two days, they kept up a hideous 
din with yells and tom-toms. The besieged began to suspect 
that the enemy were digging a mine, and that the noise they 
made was to deaden the sound of their picks, as they 
worked under ground. Harley and his Sikhs made a sortie, 
drove off the workers, entered the mine, and blew it up, or 
rather, an accident after they entered it blew it up ; but 
happily none of the party was injured by the explosion. 

All was silent the next night ; the yells and tom-toms 
ceased, when at midnight came a cry outside the fort, 
" News ! news ! Important news ! " 

For some time, dreading treachery, they hesitated to let 
in the messenger. But the news was true. A relieving 
force was at hand. When the first excitement was over, 
" I suggest a good square meal ! " cried an officer ; and 
double rations were served out all round. 

It was Colonel Kelly who had come two hundred and 
twenty-five miles from Gilgit to their relief, over mountains 
deep in snow. He had with him his own splendid regi- 
ment of Sikhs, the Thirty-Second Pioneers. He had 
altogether only about five hundred enlisted men and two 
guns of the Kashmir Mountain Battery. Three years be- 
fore, the English had been fighting the Hunzas, a people 
inhabiting a mountain district very close to Kashmir. The 
Hunzas had since appeared loyal, but it seemed almost too 
much to hope that they would join the English Relief Ex- 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2/3 

pedition. Nevertheless, on its being suggested to them, 
their prime minister marched into Gilgit with two thousand 
men, bringing with them a fortnight's rations. And the 
Rajah of the Punials, another mountain tribe of " men as 
agile as cats, and as sure-footed as goats," came with a 
large party of his followers. The Hunzas are a light-haired, 
blue-eyed race, and claim descent from the soldiers Alex- 
ander left behind, when he pushed on into the Punjaub 
with his main army. 

I cannot tell the whole story of this marvellous march. 
It must suffice here to say, that when they reached the 
Shangar Pass, the mules that carried the guns (which with 
their carriages were divided for transport into sections) 
were up to their bodies in snow, and, laden as they were, 
the poor creatures could hardly stagger along. 

" They '11 never do it ! " cried one of the officers. 

" Sahib, they cannot,''' answered one of the drivers. To 
advance without the guns would be worse than folly. The 
guns were needed to shell the enemy on the heights, and 
to drive their marksmen from their positions. 

"Without the guns the expedition would be hopeless. And 
the garrison at Chitral was possibly in extremity. 

" But the pioneers knew their coloners face. They saw his 
anxiety. 

" Said one of them to his fellows : ' We must not march with- 
out the guns.' . . . 

"There was a pause among the Sikh soldiers. ' Purity, chas- 
tity, and charity' — is the motto of their race, and when lived up 
to, it cannot but make men brave to endure. 

" ' Brothers, could not we carry the guns ? ' Another breath- 
less pause, and then came the hoarse, determined chorus : ' If 
the Commanding Sahib permits, we shall 1 ' 

" No sooner said than acted upon. They sought their native 
officers. The case was laid before them, and the spokesmen 
added, ' Beg the Commanding Sahib that we may carry the guns.' 
As the message was being delivered to Colonel Kelly, a native 
officer of the Kashmir Rifles came up also to say that his men 
volunteered to take part in the arduous task. 

"Colonel Kelly was moved. His eye kindled as he gave his 
answer, ' Tell my men I thank them.' " 

i8 



274 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The next day all was bustle ; cheerfully and with deter- 
mination the men equipped themselves for their task. An 
awful task it proved, especially the next day in the steep- 
est part of the pass, which was three feet deep in snow. It 
was dark before they had staggered to their stopping-place, 
having made only five miles' progress in one day. 

On the next day, which was bitterly cold with a fierce 
wind blowing, an advance party went forward to try to 
break a track, but many of the men suffered from snow- 
blindness and from frost-bite. 

As it was growing dark, the poor fellows, who kept slip- 
ping and falling under their loads, seemed so exhausted 
that their officers were fearing they must camp out that 
night in the snow, when suddenly from the advance guard 
a shout was heard. They had unexpectedly reached the 
end of the pass, and the descent would be comparatively 
easy. 

All this time the relief column had had little or no 
fighting. Nature had been their enemy. Umra Khan had 
never dreamed that British and Sikhs would attempt to 
come over the pass in such weather. 

When they were through the pass the worst was over. 
They marched on without much opposition, relieved Mas- 
taj, a fort about two days' march from Chitral, where Lieu- 
tenant Moberly and a small body of men were besieged. 

When the force surrounding Chitral received news of 
the relief of Mastaj, it melted away. On the arrival of the 
force under Colonel Kelly, Shuja-ul-Mulk was recognized as 
Mehtar. His brother Amir was sent to India as a prisoner, 
and Umra Khan was dispossessed of his dominions, though, 
to do him justice, he had behaved with magnanimity to 
some English officers belonging to a relief party who, on 
the way to assist Fort Chitral, had fallen into his hands. 
Another reUef column under General Gatacre was coming 
up from the west and through the Malakand Pass, which no 
white soldiers had ventured to do before. This forcing 
the Malakand, and its being held by the English after the 
relief of Chitral, was highly displeasing to the tribesmen, 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 275 

who, in 1897, fought the fiercest fight of the war to expel 
the invaders. The force that first traversed it for the reUef 
of Chitral did not reach its destination as soon as Kelly's. 
A few days after its arrival General Gatacre read the burial 
service over a new grave in the Fort Garden, where were 
interred the remains of Captain Baird, and an officer of the 
expedition put up a stone to his memory, and with his own 
hands carved on it the story of his death. Six months' extra 
pay was given to the Sikhs and Kashmir Rifles. Mr. Rob- 
ertson was made Sir George Robertson, and has written an 
interesting account of the siege. Other officers received 
promotion and honors ; and the V. C., as poor Baird with 
his dying breath had hoped, was given to the doctor,^ 

From the summer of 1895 to the summer of 1897, all 
seemed quiet along the frontier. When Colonel Warburton 
(Sir Robert Warburton) quitted Peshawar on the after- 
noon of May 10, 1897, a crowd of Afridi chiefs and head 
men came down to the railroad station to see him off, and, 
as he says, " to take a last look at one who had been asso- 
ciated with them, off and on, for nigh eighteen years." 

And who was Colonel Warburton? We know him from 
his own book, " Eighteen Years in the Khyber," published 
after his death by Murray in 1900; but we will turn to 
what was said of him in 1893 by the well-known traveller 
and correspondent, Mr. Spencer Wilkinson, premising that 
the principal passes through the Hindoo Koosh are the 
Khyber and the Malakand. There are here and there also 
some mere goat tracks from Afghanistan, one of which 
leads down to Chitral. Thus, says Mr. Wilkinson : — 

" The only road by which traffic is possible follows the Khyber 
Pass, and Peshawar is the mart for all trade between India and 
Central Asia. 

"Jellallabad belongs to the Ameer, and Peshawar to Great 
Britain, but the Khyber block of mountains belongs to the 

^ It may be well to say that my account of the siege and the 
relief of Chitral is taken from a little book called " The Heroes of the 
Siege of Chitral," which I commend to the perusal of any readers I 
may have among my friends, the boys. 



2/6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

tribes who inhabit it, — independent Afghans, or, in border lan- 
guage, Pathans. These Khyber Pathans can raise but scant 
crops from their native rocks. They cannot 'live on their 
holdings,' and must needs have some other resource with which 
to eke out their sustenance. This additional source of revenue 
is the pass. From time immemorial, they have taken toll from 
all who go through. Being poor, uncivilized, and accustomed 
to fight, their methods of levying what they conceived to be 
their due were formerly rough and irregular. But, from their 
point of view, the dues are their traditional, inalienable right. 
They are, however, very business-like people. Their point is 
to receive the money. Accordingly, they were open to contract 
for the tolls. During the first Afghan war, they took a rent in 
lieu of pass dues from the British, and caused trouble only 
when they believed they were being defrauded. Since the last 
Afghan war the same arrangement has been renewed. Each 
tribe receives an annual payment from the British Government, 
in return for which the pass is free to all authorized travellers 
on certain days in the week. There is also a modern device 
by which the good relations between the British Government 
and the tribes are increased. A corps of troops, called the 
Khyber Rifles, is recruited from the tribesmen, and is employed 
to guard the pass on the open days, and to supply escorts for 
caravans and travellers. The pay of the men, of course, found 
its way into their villages, and the whole population grew ac- 
customed to a sort of respect for British authority. All these 
arrangements had been many years in the hands of Colonel 
Warburton, whose official title was * Political Officer, Khyber 
Pass.' His position as paymaster of the tribes made him a sort 
of half-recognized king. He often settled their disputes, and 
by the exercise of a delicate tact and an immense personal in- 
fluence, for years he kept the whole Khyber border — a thou- 
sand square miles of hills — in comparative order. The cost of 
the whole business — the rent charge in lieu of dues, the Khy- 
ber Rifles, and Colonel Warburton — did not exceed ^10,000 a 
year." 

Colonel Warburton was eminently the right man in a 
very difficult position. He was the son of an English 
officer of good family, who, while at Cabul before the great 
disaster of 1841, married an Afghan lady of high rank, a 
relation of Dost Mohammed. The marriage was witnessed 
by Sir Alexander Barnes, Colonel Street, and Colonel 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 277 

Jenkins. But when the English were driven away from 
Cabul, the lady's relatives became very much angered by 
her marriage. Her husband's house was burned down, and 
for months the soldiers of Akbar Khan sought everywhere 
to find her. " But Providence sheltered her through all 
her trials and vicissitudes," says Sir Robert Warburton, 
" and in the midst of it all, in July, 1842, her son, myself, 
was born." 

Thus Colonel Warburton, though an accomplished 
English gentleman, was allied to the Afghans and Afridis, 
and possessed personal influence over them, such as is 
rarely attained by a European over Orientals. 

The government of the hill tribes is intrusted to the 
Governor of the Punjaub, not to the General Government 
of India. Colonel Warburton ventured to think that it 
would have been more advisable to put the hill tribes 
under one English official who, under the General Govern- 
ment of India, could act on his own authority. Meantime 
he earnestly entreated the Punjaub Government to give 
him an English assistant whom he might train up to take 
his place when his term of service expired. But the Pun- 
jaub Government was not willing to incur additional ex- 
pense, and a man to fill the post was hard to find, seeing 
that it seemed banishment to an English gentleman to be 
stationed at Peshawar. 

Peshawar is a place of immense bustle and trade, entirely 
inhabited by eighty thousand natives. The English and 
their troops live in cantonments about two miles out of the 
city ; and a few miles away from it, frown the foot-hills of 
the Hindoo Koosh. 

When Colonel Warburton left Peshawar in May, 1897, 
the Afridis complained of no grievances. There was occa- 
sionally a little grumbling about minor matters, but nothing 
to presage the revolt which in the month of August broke 
out among their tribes. All accounts attribute it to the 
same cause. 

In 1896 and 1897 the English papers were full of bitter 
invectives against the " unspeakable Turk " and " the great 



2/8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

assassin at Constantinople." Now, although legally the 
Sultan is not Caliph, and the larger part of the Mohamme- 
dan world will not accept him as such, — to those who 
belong to one division of the faith and call themselves Sun- 
nites, he occupies the place of defender of the faith. He 
is the great Mussulman potentate, the most important per- 
sonage who holds the faith of Islam. Afghanistan, " the 
God-granted kingdom," is the bulwark of Islamism in 
Southern Asia. Its ruler and its people are Sunnites ; and 
when the abuse showered in England on the Sultan of 
Turkey had caused deep indignation in the hearts of many 
Mohammedans, a propaganda was attempted. England 
might be attacked where she was most vulnerable. Of 
course tribesmen on the Peshawar Border were not likely to 
know (and not knowing would not care) what was said in 
the English Parliament or in the English papers, but it could 
be brought home to them if political missionaries inflamed 
their minds against the infidel and preached a holy war. 

Such an agent was sent to the Ameer of Afghanistan, 
who sent at once for all the noted mullahs of his faith, in- 
troduced them to this agent, and after telling them to go 
to their homes and preach a religious war, advised them to 
make arrangements for a reserve force to be called out 
when all should be ready. The Ameer also wrote and cir- 
culated a pamphlet to the same effect. 

Among the hill tribes, there were three formidable 
mullahs (holy men, generally priests) who were held in 
especial estimation, — Sayad Akbar, who lived in the beauti- 
ful valley of Tirah, beside the simple, unostentatious mosque 
which was the meeting-place of seven Afridi clans ; the 
Hadda Mullah of Jarobi ; and the "Mad Fakir" of Swat. 
Of these, Sayad Akbar was the least respected, — he was 
worldly and avaricious ; the Haddah Mullah lived a quiet 
life, and had a great reputation for sanctity ; the Mad 
Mullah was the successor of the Alkund of Swat, and was 
an insane fanatic. Each of these men raised a lashkar, or 
army. In one of these lashkars, there were, it is said, no 
less than fifteen hundred mullahs, all preaching a holy war 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 2/9 

against the infidels ; and a report was circulated that the 
Turks had fought the infidels, invaded their country, and 
completely got the better of them. The "infidels" so 
conquered were the Greeks, but of course ignorant moun- 
taineers in a remote part of the world were not likely to 
know the insignificance of Greece. It was enough for 
them that the Children of the Prophet had triumphed upon 
unbelievers. Why, if Allah had lent them His assistance, 
might they not do so again? 

The lashkar under their mullahs attacked and burned 
British posts all along the frontier. Then of course the 
English Government assembled its forces, and la revanche 
began. 

The first expedition undertaken was against the Mah- 
monds ; it lasted barely six weeks, and the troops suffered 
much from the extreme heat. The Mahmonds were forced 
to acknowledge themselves conquered and to accept the 
terms offered by their enemies. These included rupees, 
grain, and, above all, three hundred of their rifles. Now to 
a hill tribesman his rifle is dearer than his wife ; in fact, he 
could buy several wives for the price it would cost him to 
purchase one rifle. Therefore for many years rifle-stealing 
from British camps, outposts, or even British sentries, has 
been a national industry, — a source of great profit where 
it could be carried on with success. 

This is why the hill marksmen have of late years grown 
so formidable. In the hill campaigns of 1897 there were 
hardly any fights, but a continual picking off, or "snip- 
ing " of men and officers, often at very long range. 

" Like all Pathans the Mahmonds live in a constant state 
of blood feuds, and the country is covered with towers of 
refuge. These are generally circular, and a rope ladder 
hangs from the entrance, which is in the top storey. The 
fugitive, hard pressed, reaches the tower and enters, haul- 
ing the ladder up after him. He then from the loopholes 
fires down on his pursuers. His women folk may bring 
him bread and meat, for no Pathan will fire on a woman." ^ 
1 " Indian Frontier War, 1897." Lionel James. 



28o LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

But the great end and object of the war was the Tirah 
Expedition. 

These were the orders issued in the '' Gazette " : — 

" The general object of this expedition is to exact reparation 
for the unprovoked aggression of the Afridi and Orakzai tribes 
on the Peshawar and Kohat Borders, in the attacks on our 
frontier posts, and for the damage to hfe and property which 
had been inflicted on British subjects and those in British 
service. 

" It is beheved that this object will best be attained by the 
invasion of Tirah, the summer home of the Afridis and Orak- 
zais, which has never before been entered by a British force." 

It was October 9, 1897, when the English army, 
about thirty-two thousand strong, of which ten thousand 
were British soldiers, and the remainder chiefly Sikhs and 
Gourkas, entered the beautiful Tirah Valley, where in summer 
the Afridis pastured their flocks and made their dwellings. 
The valley is so fertile and so beautiful that part of it has 
long been called by the Mohammedan tribesmen, " The 
Garden of Eden." It is surrounded by rugged mountains, 
whose tops in October were covered with snow, and whose 
passes glittered with ice. It cost the British some severe 
fighting before they could get into the valley. It had never 
before been entered by any army, and had been scarcely 
seen by a white man. Its peaceful beauty and its air of 
pastoral comfort and prosperity touched the hearts of the 
English who had come to lay it waste, tear down its cottages, 
and replenish their commissariat with all things eatable that 
its inhabitants, who had fled, had left behind. The house 
that the Mullah Seyd Akbar had constructed for himself, at 
great cost of money and labor, was razed to the ground, and 
small respect was paid to the mosque that stood near it, 
which owed none of its importance to its architecture, but 
which had been long the meeting-place of the chiefs of 
the Afridi clans when in council assembled. It was the po- 
litical character of this place, where Seyd Akbar had 
preached his Holy War, that made it of importance. At 
that council he also encouraged his followers by a miracle. 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 28 1 

In a dream he had been reminded of a legend which said 
that in a certain spot a clay jar had been anciently buried. 
If on the eve of a war with Kafirs, that jar were dug up and 
found unbroken, the invaders of Tirah would retire discom- 
fited. Instead of that, the invaders burned and destroyed 
all that was associated with Seyd Akbar, but when they 
afterwards descended into the Valley of the Swat, they 
respected the shrine of the Alkund of Swat, and even 
allowed their Mohammedan soldiers to pay their devotions 
at his tomb, for he had been considered a man of great 
sanctity. 

I may here say that the Sikhs are not Mohammedans, nor 
do they worship the gods of the Hindoos. Their religion is 
a compromise between Brahminism and Mohammedanism. 
They worship one God, without a mediator and without the 
use of images ; they look upon the eating of beef as a 
deadly offence, but they eat other kinds of animal food. 
Their first pontiff was Nanak of Lahore, who flourished 
about 1500; their last and most influential was Govind, 
who was assassinated in 1708. He instructed them to 
eschew superstition, to practise strict morality, and to live 
by the sword ; but since his days their morality has degen- 
erated. However, they are still regarded as a kind of 
Hindoo Puritans. " From Puritans," says Steevens, "they 
became Ironsides, praying and fighting with equal fervor." 
They made themselves masters of the Punjaub, and under 
Runjeet Singh were the greatest power in India. I have 
told of the war waged against them by Lord Gough and 
Sir Charles Napier,^ — a war well within my memory. 

The English though conquerors have been always very 
friendly to this splendid people ; especially have they 
treated their religion with tolerance and respect. 

During the mutiny (only ten years after they had sub- 
mitted to English rule), they rendered splendid service 
to their conquerors; and it is only necessary to name 
the Sikhs to remember at once that they are worthy to fight 

1 See "England in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 212-216. 



282 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

side by side with the Gordon and Seaforth Highlanders, 
some of the noblest soldiers in the world. 

Their sufferings from the cold and those of other soldiers 
in the Tirah campaign were terrible. The Sikhs had never 
before experienced frost and snow, their uniforms were ill 
calculated to protect them, and the bitter blasts that 
came down from the mountains are dwelt upon by ofificers 
and correspondents who have written accounts of the cam- 
paign as having been almost intolerable. Yet these men 
had tents and blankets, and all appliances and means that 
could be procured in such a country to enable them to 
keep out the cold. 

There had been many Afridis enlisted as soldiers in the 
English army, but they were sent away to garrison other 
places. The temptation to desert with their rifles it was 
thought might be too great if they were brought face to 
face with their own tribesmen. Yet some who stayed with 
their old masters acted with great fidelity. 

The best brief account of the war may be found in a Gen- 
eral Order issued April 4, 1898, when happily it was over. 

" From the beginning of October to the end of January the 
force was engaged in active operations, and seldom brave troops 
have been called upon to endure greater fatigues, and to meet 
a more vigilant and enterprising enemy. After long marches 
in cold and wet, harassed by distant rifle-fire, and by assaults 
at close quarters, the places where they bivouacked had to 
be protected by men strongly posted on commanding heights, 
and these pickets were always liable to sudden attack, and to 
molestation on withdrawal. There was, in fact, little or no rest 
for the force, the most carefully chosen camping-ground 
being generally open to long range-fire from scattered in- 
dividual marksmen armed with the most accurate weapons." 

Sir Robert Warburton was with the army, it being thought 
that he would exercise more influence over the Afridis than 
any other man when the time came for proposing peace. 
He went through the campaign on foot. His heart bled 
for the desolation wrought in the Happy Valley ; but he 
says : — 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 283 

"The Tirah campaign brought out the finest qualities of the 
British generals and British soldiers, and of the native army 
and India troops; and this campaign made me respect the 
Afridis greatly, not only as fighting men, but as friends." ^ 

Indeed, it was with great reluctance that the Afridis 
broke their alliance with the English, threw up the pay and 
privileges they had earned in the British service, and be- 
came the enemies of their former friends. All said — and 
it appears to have been the truth — that they were forced 
into the war by their mullahs ; that they dared not disobey 
their mullahs, especially when these men had issued a 
proclamation threatening with excommunication any one 
of the clans which should separately make terms with the 
infidels. 

Having ravaged the Valley of Tirah, the English army 
left it at the close of November and descended into the 
Beza Valley watered by the Swat River. They marched 
through ravines and over bowlders, often knee-deep in icy 
water, fighting all the while a continuous rear-guard action 
with skilful marksmen who had rifles of the latest pattern, 
and who fired down on them from high cliffs among the 
hills. The generals, Sir William Lockhart and General 

1 An amusing instance of the old unregenerate nature that still 
lay beneath the discipline of the Guides, the trusted soldiers of 
Lumsden, was once offered to him on the occasion of the inspection 
of his corps by Sir John Lawrence, when Governor of the Punjaub : 
" Sir John, though cordially relying on Lumsden's judgment, spent 
two or three days in cultivating a personal knowledge, as was his habit, 
with all who came before him; and thus it seemed to the men of 
the Guides that their leader was harassed by explanations instead of 
being with them as usual in the field or at sports. The night be- 
fore Sir John was to march with his retinue from Murdan, Lums- 
den, after Sir John had gone to bed, went outside and sat on the 
parapet of the fort. After a while an Afridi orderly, who always 
attended him in sport or fight, crept up to him and said : ' Since the 
great Lawrence came, you have been worried and distressed. Many 
have observed this ; and he is always looking at papers, asking ques- 
tions, and overhauling your accounts. Has he said anything to pain 
you ? Is he interfering with you ? He starts for Peshawar to-morrow 
morning ; there is no reason why he should reach it.' " — " Litmsden 
of the Guides" by Sir P. Lumsden. 



284 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

VVestmacott, had said that they would not propose terms 
of peace till they announced them in the Tirah Valley. All 
winter negotiations were carried on. The terms were not 
severe. The English demanded submission, fifty thousand 
rupees, and five hundred breech-loading rifles. 

We may imagine the difficulties and the cost of that cam- 
paign when we think that its transport demanded sixteen 
thousand camels, forty- five thousand mules, and twelve 
thousand bullocks. If the English left desolation in the 
valley, they at least left it good roads, made by the sappers 
and miners of the pioneer corps, where before the invasion 
there had been only goat paths, barely practicable. 

Peace was definitely concluded April 4, 1898. And in 
the summer months of the same year, this is how Mr. 
Steevens writes of the Khyber country : — 

" Frowning over your head, slipping away from under your 
foot, letting in vast perspectives of more khaki-colored rock 
and black bush, shutting up the world into two cliffs and an 
abyss, the Khyber is a mere perplexity of riotous mountain. 
You would say that these savage hills could support nothing 
but solitude, yet here are tlie mountaineers. A couple of lithe, 
aquiline young men in khaki and sandals rise out of a heap of 
stones as you pass, and shoulder Snider muskets. On the hill 
above, under the mud-walled blockhouse, loll half a dozen 
more. These are of the Khyber Rifles, — Afridis who, now 
that the war is over, have returned, without malice and without 
abashment, to their old service of guarding the pass. They 
start out of nothing at every turn of the road ; on all the lower 
summits you can just make out khaki pickets against the khaki 
country. The pass is now, or was then, open two days a week, 
which means that it is picketed by Khyber Rifles while the 
caravans go through. Twice a week they go up towards Cabul ; 
twice a week they come down into India, needing the whole 
day to make the pass." . . . 

As you find the pass opening out on the Afghan side of 
the mountain, you see a white encampment, and a quad- 
rangular fort with towers at the angles of its loopholed walls. 
Ov'er it flies the Union Jack. It is at Landi Kotal, the very 
edge of British India. 




GENERAL LOCKHART. 



FRONTIER WARS IN INDIA 285 

" Here are three battalions and a mountain battery and sap- 
pers under the best-trusted brigadier in India. . . . The surround- 
ing population is obedient in large things and sportive in small. 
The Shinwari villagers are thoroughly friendly. The very 
Afridis southward submit to the general as their arbiter. They 
have a custom when they plough, of meeting mjifgah, and there 
each man lays a stone before him. While the ploughing lasts 
the stones are down, and all blood feuds sleep. The other day, 
the war with the Sirkai being over, and a feeling abroad that 
their rifles had been silent too long, they came to the General 
Sahib for permission to lift the stones and open the each-other- 
shooting season. ' The first village that begins will be de- 
stroyed,' said he ; and they went away sorrowful, but obedient. 
Only in small things they are a law unto themselves. You 
could hardly expect them to deny themselves the exercise of 
rifle-stealing with a whole brigade of Lee-Mitfords and Mar- 
tinis before their very eyes. So on dark nights the promising 
young Afridi creeps down towards the sentry, who, if he is 
sleeping, will be found next morning with a knife in his back 
instead of a rifle." ^ 

This is a long extract, but taken in connection with all 
that had come before, I think it a very interesting one. 
The Afridis fought a good fight, and they are proud of it. 
The game is over, and they bear no malice. They are as 
ready to discuss the subject with absolute calmness and 
impartiality as they would be the points in a game of polo 
or football. 

When may we hope to witness such a state of things 
among the Filipinos? 

1 " In India," by G. W. Steevens. 



CHAPTER IV 

INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 

'"PHERE are two classes in India which, restless and dis- 
■^ satisfied, cannot reconcile themselves to the rule of 
England. One of these is composed of the most fanatical 
Mohammedans, who detest the supremacy of the infidel 
(though the infidel officially treats their religion with re- 
spect) ; the other is the half-educated Hindoo Babu with his 
veneer of Europeanism. 

There is also one especial city where disaffection seethes 
continually. This is Poona, a city beautifully situated on 
high ground in the Presidency of Bombay. Poona has as 
its excuse for turbulence and disaffection the fact that for 
one hundred years, during the empire of the Mahrattas, it 
was their capital; in 1818, after a brief succession of in- 
competent and cruel rulers, the Mahratta empire was over- 
thrown, and Poona fell into the hands of the English. 
Other provinces in India were ceded to England or con- 
quered from some alien ruler who had established his 
authority over them by force ; " but the Mahrattas have 
never forgotten how high they were less than one hundred 
years ago, and who it was that brought them low. They lost 
more than others, and they feel the loss more." Besides 
this, Poona is the stronghold of what we might call the 
High Church party of the Hindoo faith. The Brahmins 
who inhabit it cannot tolerate the infidel. Each feels that 
his empire, his supremacy, his nationality, his religion, his 
honor, and even his beautiful language are now lost, — the 
English invader has taken them all. As he looks upon 
Englishmen, he says in his heart : " These men, who will be 
burning in hell, while I am enjoying heaven, have at present 



INDIA, THElPLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 287 

the power to rule me, and I cannot shake them off; neverthe- 
less, what I can do to obstruct their plans and worry the 
officials in whom they trust, that will I do." So anything 
that the English Government is supposed to support meets 
with opposition in Poona, and the influence of Poona through 
its Brahmins spreads more or less over the whole land. 

In 1896 the bubonic plague broke out in Bombay, where 
it still exists. A few isolated cases have appeared in 
Western lands, but there its advance has been opposed 
by science and law; and possibly law and science might 
have dealt with it in India with some success, had they not 
met with persistent opposition. But the native population 
of Bombay looked with apathy upon the plague while they 
violently resented the intrusion of medical men and health 
officers into their houses. They were resigned to the pros- 
pect that one-tenth of the population of their city would die 
of it before the year 1904, when by some superstitious cal- 
culation they believe its visitation will cease. The English 
Government was not so minded. Human life may be held 
cheap in India, but even the lives of coolies are not worth- 
less in the eyes of Englishmen. So house visitations were 
ordered, and were made by doctors, escorted by sailors or 
soldiers. But the natives — Hindoos and Mohammedans 
— were so appalled at the idea of interference with their 
religious customs, their caste rules, or their domestic proprie- 
ties, that they systematically opposed all precautions that 
the Government attempted to take to prevent the plague 
from spreading. 

The Government then endeavored to persuade Brahmins 
and Mohammedans of influence to accompany the health 
officers and see that nothing was unnecessarily done to vio- 
late religion or domestic decencies. At first it was very 
hard to find men of consideration willing to take any interest 
in the work. What was it to them if the poor man died, or 
if he lost caste, or any other misfortune happened to him ? 
But after a time some Brahmins and Mohammedans of the 
better sort came forward to assist in the saving of poor 
wretches whose friends were unwilling to allow them to be 



288 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

saved if preservation of their lives involved the risk of in- 
curring loss of caste, or if women's apartments were to be 
searched in Mohammedan houses. No notions of sanitary 
conditions exist in India, and, to say truth, nothing excites 
peasants, or people who live in slums, even in Christian 
countries, so much as the enforcement of the laws of health 
by municipal or government authority. 

Sanitary reforms and the domiciliary visits of public 
functionaries had been resisted in Bombay ; but when the 
plague spread to Poona, they were held to be intolerable. 

On the evening of the day of the Queen's Diamond Jubi- 
lee, June 21, 1897, a party of conspirators in Poona (high- 
caste Brahmins, one of whom had been educated in Eng- 
land and had studied at an English university), murdered 
Mr. Rand, a doctor, and Lieutenant Ayerst, who was accom- 
panying him on a round of inspection. The gang fell into 
the hands of the law, and four of them were hanged ; but 
they were hardly more guilty than the writers who had in- 
cited them to the deed, writing in Hindoo and Mohamme- 
dan papers against all those engaged in plague work, and 
disseminating endless calumnies about the behavior of 
British soldiers in private houses. 

" Compared with Orientals," Mr. Steevens says, "we Western 
people do not know what religion is. Hindooism prescribes and 
enters into every single act in the lives of those who profess it. 
It tells them what to eat, what to drink, wherewithal to be 
clothed, whom to marrj', whom not to touch with so much as 
their shadows. You may call it unspiritual, — religion fossilized 
into unmeaning, stupid custom, — yet it is their all, and they 
prize it beyond life." 

It stands, too, in the way of all modern improvements that 
the English are trying to introduce into India. A simple 
thing like riding in a tram-car is enough to defile a high- 
caste Brahmin if a defiling person is in the car too. All 
modern improvements that Western civilization is introduc- 
ing into India are a fertile source of religious offence to those 
who lay claim to sanctity. The most rigid and fanatical 



INDIA, THE PI AGUE AND THE FAMINE 289 

Brahmins constantly endeavor to overload religion with 
more and more onerous observances, in the hope that these 
one day may lead to strife. To them the visitation of the 
plague in 1897 and the employment of British troops in 
house-to-house examinations was a golden chance. They 
might have protected their religion from Western ignorance 
of the laws of caste, and saved the lives of their countrymen, 
had they been willing to aid the government officers in their 
work, but for many months after the plague appeared all 
were apathetic. The system of house visitation has now 
been discontinued ; it was found impossible, without rousing 
the susceptibilities of the people, to carry it out. 

The bubonic plague is believed to cease at the approach 
of the hot weather. It is a germ disease, and its bacilli are 
thought to have been discovered by a Japanese physician ; 
as yet, however, no successful mode of prevention has been 
devised. Since 1897 the plague has been succeeded by 
cholera in India, and by the terrible Indian famine. As 
far back as 1892 the Government began to accumulate 
a famine fund, and it has spent in the past two years 
_;,^6o,ooo,ooo for the relief of sufferers; but an immense 
sum will still be needed, if by irrigation throughout the 
country, future famines are to be avoided. India is not 
the land of gold and diamonds, as it is popularly supposed 
to be. The government is poor, its expenses enormous, 
and its employes by no means richly paid. Nabob uncles 
who come home to England bringing lakhs of rupees wrung 
from the natives of India are now only heard of in novels. 
Government is sometimes accused of overtaxing the 
agricultural population, but it must be remembered that 
the money paid in taxes is paid back to the people in 
material improvements. It is not squandered on favorites, 
or laid up in vaults as hidden treasure ; it helps to provide 
for the maintenance of law and order in the districts, 
now no longer ravaged by internecine wars, and to protect 
the people from the high-handed spoliation which in past 
times was carried on by native officials. 

The famine is now almost over ; but the poverty and 
19 



290 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

desolation it must leave behind cannot but be lasting, and 
will call for help either from the Imperial Government, the 
Indian Government, or private sources, for many years. 

I will give my readers a specimen of what, in spite of 
all that has been done to help the sufferers, must have been 
the case for many months all over India. The account 
appears to have come from a safe source, and tells of the 
condition in a country district while the bread-winners were 
away in the relief camp working for pay that had not as 
yet reached their homes. 

"On the fourth instant I visited Dohad, a large native town 
about one hundred miles east of Anand in Gujarat. I am 
somewhat at a loss to know how to begin anything like a 
perfect description of this visit. On reaching the station I was 
informed by the station-master that large numbers of the people 
that had been employed on government relief works there had 
been, ten days before, removed to another place twenty-five 
miles distant. ' But,' said he, ' if you wish to see something 
of the work of the famine, you have only to step down there by 
our first signal, and you will see the bodies of two persons who 
starved to death there two days ago.' He deputed a porter to 
act as our guide through the native city, where we went first. 
Such sights met our eyes ! We had never thought that such 
a state of affairs ever existed in India ! On every hand were 
the dead and dying. Sometimes it was an aged person, some- 
times a youth or an infant. The sun beat down almost unbear- 
ably. The wind carried the sand in clouds. There was scarcely 
any noise, though there were many people. They sat, or lay, 
quietly in groups of from five to fifty beneath the trees by the 
roadside. Often one had fallen alone, and was left there to die 
as he had fallen. The living, the dying, and the dead were 
all together. If one died in the centre of a group, no one 
attempted to remove the body. Why should they 1 All have 
sat or lain down there to die, and one by one they meet death ; 
they all wait for it. They are all hopeless. They say there 
is no one who will give, so they resign themselves to their awful 
fate. Passing on through the city about one mile, we came to 
its eastern boundary. In the bottom of the dry river-bed and on 
its banks were scores of dead bodies. In many parts of the 
city unburied bodies were also to be found. They have what 
they call a municipality at Dohad, but its members do not care. 



INDIA, THE PI AGUE AND THE FAMINE 29 1 

The heartlessness of rich natives who could help if they would, 
and are within a stone's throw of the sufferers, is very manifest. 
Many we found dying of thirst within half a minute's walk of 
some rich Mohammedan or high-caste Hindoo who, unless 
almost forced to do it, would not turn a hand to alleviate the 
sufferings of the dying. 

" It was dreadful to look upon the faces of the small children 
who had starved to death. Marks of infant beauty intermingled 
with those indicative of a painful death were traceable. What 
deaths they have met ! And near them on every side sat others 
enduring the same terrible suffering and awaiting the same 
terrible end. Is any one responsible, and will any one have to 
answer and say why it was permitted to be so ? The mission- 
aries are doing much, and would do more if they had the 
means. . . . We saw many who we were sure were too weak 
to raise a hand, and who we were certain could not defend them- 
selves in the event of an attack from a jackal or hungry dog. 
. . . One of the bravest acts we witnessed was that of a little 
girl about seven years of age, attempting the care of her two 
little brothers after the mother had given up hope, and had lain 
down near them to die. She was feeding a fire which burned 
beneath a broken pot in which simmered the almost rotten 
bones and feet of a dead animal. The scene was the most 
heart-rending we ever witnessed. It cannot be painted too 
black. No account we have ever read of any famine would 
picture the state of things at Dohad." ^ 

This account might be supplemented by many others ; for 
instance, by one from the pen of Pundita Ramabai, well 
known in America, and another written by Julian Hawthorne. 
But the subject is too painful, and if we cannot send them 
any help, " let us not speak of them, but, having glanced, 
pass on." 

Famines in some part of India or another were of almost 
yearly occurrence a hundred years ago, and the English 
Government congratulated itself on what appeared the 
greatest triumph of the English regime ; namely, that it had 
made it possible to bring the surplus food of one district 
to the relief of starving people in another, when, alas ! the 

1 The " Times," London. Letter copied into the " Catholic 
World," New York. 



292 LAST YEARS OF THE NTNETEEMTH CENTURY 

present famine, due to the drought that for three years 
has extentled over three-fourths of the land in India, has 
taxed government resources to the utmost, and has pre- 
sented difficulties that no facilities in transportation have 
been able to overcome. Year after year, since 1897, rains 
have almost ceased. They are due twice a year, about 
Christmas and in June. These rains generally accompany 
the monsoon ; but for two years past the rainfall has 
failed. 

In the spring of 1897 the Indian Government was doing 
all it could to meet the threatened disaster. It had half a 
million of people employed upon relief works ; but it was 
feared (which proved too true) that no expenditure of 
care or money would be able to prevent the deaths of 
thousands, or of hundreds of thousands, in the coming 
years. 

India raises two crops annually. The first is sown in 
May and June, the second from September to November. 
Then it is expected that the summer and the winter rain 
will nourish the blade as it comes up out of the ground. 
In the last three years the grain has lain simply buried in 
the ground. The people became wholly discouraged. 

"Dust — dust — " says an observer, writing from Raj- 
putana in Jime, 1900, — "dust is everywhere. And here 
are lean cattle with sharp, knife-like backs, and each rib 
standing out in a gaunt semicircle, wandering feebly over 
the barren plains, where there is not a green leaf or a blade 
of grass that they can eat. So far as one can see there is 
no more for them to eat than they would find in a paved 
street." In one district an official report said that a mil- 
lion of cattle had died of starvation. As the cattle, though 
never used for food, are absolutely essential in every phase 
of Indian agriculture, this will prove a more lasting blow 
than the failure of the crops. Government bought up 
whole herds of these emaciated creatures, and sent them 
to hospital farms in other parts of the country, where it 
is hoped they may recover their vitality. Lord George 
Hamilton, the Secretary of State for India, told the House 



INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 293 

of Commons last spring that even if Central India had this 
summer abundant rains, it would take it six years to re- 
cover from its loss of livestock. When farming operations 
should be renewed, men and women would have to draw 
their ploughs. 

The situation up to June, 1900, when the monsoon rains 
were expected, grew more and ai)palling, and the rains 
were late this year; instead of coming by the loth of June, 
they were delayed several weeks. In spite of all the efforts 
of the Government, no less than forty millions of people 
were reported to be actually famine-stricken, while twenty 
millions were suffering in a greater or less degree from the 
scarcity of food. In Central and Western India, over a 
tract of three hundred thousand square miles, there was no 
money to buy grain, even if grain could be procured to 
reach the suffering people. It was feared that the famine 
might be even worse than that of 1877, when six millions 
of people died from want. Cholera too broke out in the 
relief camps, where men, women, and children were huddled 
together under the worst sanitary conditions. 

India has four times the population of the United States 
with about half the acreage. Thirty millions of people 
have to be fed from their own crops. The country in 
good years produces little more food than can be eaten by 
its inhabitants. In northern India those crops are wheat, 
barley, and some other grains ; in the south rice and 
millet! 

The first great Indian famine of which western history 
has any record was in 1770, when ten millions of people 
died in Bengal alone. It was then calculated that great 
famines might be expected twice in a century, but the 
English Government in India hoped that with its large 
Famine Fund and increased facilities for transport such 
calamities might be prevented in the future. 

Government has done its best to assume the responsi- 
bility of feeding the starving millions. It has undertaken 
igreat works to give destitute people a chance to earn 
their living. It apportions funds to feed those who cannot 



294 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

work, and appoints Englishmen to look after them. The 
case of Dohad, which I have reported, was in the dominions 
of a native prince ; but it must be said that many of these 
native rulers, stirred up by the example and exhortations of 
the English Government, have endeavored to do their duty ; 
they are, however, not accustomed to organize relief work, 
and the supply of Englishmen is far too small to minister 
adequately to the wants of millions of people. 

The tasks of laborers on the relief works are made very 
light, and the pay that they receive, though it seems infini- 
tesimal to us, is enough in India to support them day by 
day. Many have to travel a hundred miles on foot to 
reach the place where work and pay can be obtained, — 
three cents a day for men, and less for women and 
children. 

In addition to the Famine Fund, which, as I have said, 
has spent ;^6o,ooo,ooo, charitable contributions are now 
flowing in. At first the Indian Government, relying on its 
own resources and unwilling to ask help, discouraged the 
efforts to raise private contributions. But as the evil 
increased, the Lord Mayor opened a fund at the Mansion 
House, which has now amounted to about ;^i, 000,000. 
Religious bodies throughout England, Canada, and the 
United States have raised large sums which they have 
placed in the hands of their missionaries. Kansas and 
Nebraska, in 1897, offered to load a ship with corn for 
Indian sufferers ; and quite recently Governor Stanley, re- 
siding at Topeka, has been foremost in encouraging his 
people to raise funds. One religious newspaper received 
contributions which purchased twenty thousand bushels of 
corn, sold to it at half price by Western farmers. The 
Government chartered a steamer, the "Quito," for its trans- 
port, and on the loth of May it sailed from New York 
with directions that its cargo should be divided among 
missionaries, without any distinction of denomination. 

Sir Edwin Arnold, in the "North American Review," 
speaks thus of the effects of starvation and of the Indian 
famine : — 



INDIA, THE PLAGUE AND THE FAMINE 295 

"Officers of keen ability and devoted energy have been 
appointed to administer the affairs of the Famine Department, 
to watch, inspect, inquire, and report constantly and ubiqui- 
tously, doing a work which no conqueror, or power, or maha- 
rajah ever before attempted in India; for the Christian Govern- 
ment of the Queen-Empress stands self-pledged before Heaven 
to 'save life by all available means in its power.' ^ . . . Starva- 
tion is essentially a slow disease, the crisis of which rarely 
arrives early, and ofttimes is unsuspected by its victim and by 
his would-be helpers. The physical condition of the Hindoo 
race is not a strong one ; it is imperfectly fitted, we may fear, 
for a crisis by a vegetable diet, which must be consumed in 
large bulk to get adequate nourishment. Under daily stress 
of hunger, the mucous membranes become impoverished, and 
their functions impaired. The little store of fat in the tissues 
wastes quickly away. The poor thin blood lacks current and 
substance to feed the failing limbs ; and the man or woman 
has really died weeks before that day upon which — walking 
skeletons of bone and shrunken skin — they have found the 
government distributor, and have taken with lean fingers the 
food they can no longer digest, and which poisons instead of 
nourishing them." 

^ Government's official declaration in a Blue Book. 



part ^W 

EUROPE IN AFRICA 



Chapter I. 


Egypt. 


II. 


The Dongola Campaign. 


" III. 


Atbara and Omdurman. 


" IV. 


Fashoda. End of the Khalifa 


V. 


Transvaal and Kruger. 


" VI. 


Jameson Raid. 


" VII. 


Ladysmith. 


" VIII. 


Pretoria. 


" IX. 


Other Notes on Africa. 



EUROPE IN AFRICA 

CHAPTER I 

EGYPT 

TN my account of Egypt and the Soudan, in " Europe in 
-^ Africa in the Nineteenth Century," I broke oif in 1895 
when Slatin Bey (now Slatin Pasha) had escaped from the 
Dervishes. The EngUsh had then retired from the Sou- 
dan ; their most southern outpost — or rather the most 
southern outpost of the Egyptian army — was at Wady 
Haifa on the edge of the dominions of the Khahfa Abdullah 
(or AbduUahi), who had succeeded the Mahdi, Abdullah 
Ahmed, in 1885. 

The Nile, on its course from Khartoum to Wady Haifa, 
makes two extraordinary loops or bends. Having passed 
Berber and reached Abu Hammed, it turns to the south- 
west, flows between two deserts to Old Dongola, and then 
takes a tolerably direct course northward to the sea, passing 
Wady Haifa at the second cataract. It was at Assouan, an 
Egyptian outpost on the Nile north of Wady Haifa and 
close to the first cataract, that Slatin made his appearance 
on his escape from the land of his captivity. I have al- 
ready told the story at some length,^ but here is an account 
of his arrival, as related by eye-witnesses to Mr. Winston 
Spencer Churchill. 

"Early on the i6th of March, 1895, a weary, travel-stained 
Arab, in a tattered ^/^(5a: and mounted on a lame and emaciated 

1 "Europe in Africa," pp. 107-109. 



300 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

camel, presented himself to the commandant. He was received 
with delighted wonder, and speedily conducted to the best bath- 
room the place afforded. Two hours later a little Austrian 
gentleman stepped forth, and the telegraph hastened to tell the 
news that Skitin, sometime Governor of Darfur, had escaped 
from the Khalifa's clutches. Here at last was a man who knew 
everything that concerned the Dervish Empire; . . . and while 
his accurate knowledge confirmed the belief of the Egyptian 
authorities that the Dervish power was declining, his tale of 
'Fire and Sword in the Soudan' increased tlie horror and 
anger of thoughtful people in England at the cruelties of the 
Klialifa; and public opinion began to veer toward the policy of 
the reconquest of the Soudan." 

I told of desultory fighting in 1SS3 between Osman 
Digna and tlie small European and Egyptian force stationed 
at Suakim on the shore of the Red Sea. But although I 
spoke of the brave fight made by General Sir Gerard 
Graham and his British troops at El Teb, on their way 
home from India, I find no mention in my narrative of the 
name of Herbert Kitchener, — the man who to English 
and American readers is foremost after Gordon in con- 
nection with the history of the Soudan. 

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the eldest son of a lieutenant- 
colonel, was born in 1850. He was educated at no public 
school, but when old enough was appointed a cadet in the 
West Point of England, the Military Academy at Woolwich, 
He did not apparently distinguish himself at the Academy, 
but' in 187 1 he obtained his commission, and for ten years 
remained an obscure officer performing his routine duties 
to the satisfaction of his superiors. During that time, how- 
ever, in 1874, he was employed with a surveying party in 
Cyprus, and w-ent afterwards with the exploring expedition 
in Palestine. Always eager for knowledge, while there he 
learned Arabic, " though in those days Arabic was supposed 
to be of no more practical advantage to an English officer 
than proficiency in Patagonian." For Kitchener it laid 
the foundation of his future fortunes. In 18S2, when the 
British fleet was at Alexandria, he obtained a furlough, and 
started for the scene of action. But to his mortification 




LORD ROBERTS. 



EGYPT 301 

and disappointment, he found that his leave would run out 
before the crisis came. It had already been extended once 
and he could not hope to receive the same favor again. 

" However, as a last chance, he applied for a further extension. 
He felt that it would be refused, and it was at the suggestion 
of a newspaper correspondent that he added that he would as- 
sume it granted unless he was recalled by telegraph. The 
telegram came with promptness ; but it fell into the hands of 
the friendly newspaper correspondent, who did not manage to 
deliver it until the weekly Cyprus mail had left, and compliance 
with its order was for the time impossible. Thus a week was 
gained. Much might happen before the week was out. The 
event was fortunate. Four days later Alexandria was bom- 
barded. Detachments from the fleet were landed to restore 
order. The British Government decided to send an army to 
Egypt. An officer who could speak Arabic was indispensable. 
Thus Kitcliener came to Egypt, and set his foot firmly on the 
high road to fortune."^ 

When Lord Wolseley came out to Alexandria, he was 
glad to avail himself of the services of an active officer who 
could speak Arabic. Kitchener was one of the twenty- six 
Europeans who undertook to form the " rabble rout " de- 
feated at El Teb into an Egyptian army. Of \h.e fellaheen 
in 1883 their unfortunate commander, Valentine Baker, 
said : " They do not even know how to handle their guns. 
They can just load and pull the trigger. It is ridiculous 
to call them soldiers." In twelve years from that time the 
Egyptian army was the pride of the Englishmen who had 
formed it ; and it did splendid service in the Omdurman 
campaign. 

In 1886, Major Kitchener was made Governor of Suakim, 
but he was not a successful civil administrator. Osman 
Digna^ in 1887 reappeared, and for a couple of years 

1 " The River War." W. S. Churchill. 

2 It is said that the father of Osman Digna was a Scotsman 
who married a French lady. He died after the birth of a son, and 
his widow then married an Arab sheikh who adopted her child, and 
brought him up as a Mussulman to become a distinguished Dervish 
leader. 



302 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Kitchener, with his small force, carried on guerilla war- 
fare. In a skirmish he was severely wounded in the face. 
After that he was made Adjutant- General of the Egyptian 
army. There he was in his element, — preparing for war, 
organizing all kinds of army reforms, transport reforms, 
and other miUtary preparations. In 1892, he was made 
Sirdar; that is, Commander in Chief of the Egyptian army. 
Sir Evelyn Baring (now Lord Cromer), had great confi- 
dence in his zeal and his ability, and looked upon him as 
the military officer most capable of reconquering the Soudan, 
as soon as the English Government should give the word 
" forward ! " 

The Soudan campaign had ample time to prepare for 
the transportation of stores, for the construction of its rail- 
ways, and for utilizing the work of the Intelligence De- 
partment. The campaign in the Transvaal has had none 
of these advantages. It has no Nile, no concentration 
of its forces ; its communications required the defence 
not of one line of railway, but of several. The Dervishes 
fought as an army, not behind bowlders as guerillas. It is 
easy to imagine the trials of Lord Kitchener, who, after his 
glorious campaign as commander-in-chief of a victorious 
army, was made second in command, and Master of Trans- 
portation, to forces in South Africa which had to advance 
under all these disadvantages. 

In "Italy in the Nineteenth Centur}^" I told of the 
Italian invasion of Abyssinia, of the battle of Adowa, March 
I, 1896, and of the withdrawal of the Italians from their 
expensive and unprofitable colony along the shores of the 
Red Sea. 

With the consent and encouragement of other European 
Powers, England resolved to make war upon the Khalifa, 
and to draw nearer to Khartoum. But although prepara- 
tions for this war had been making for a long time, the 
resolution to advance was sudden, and created much sur- 
prise. Mr. Gladstone's party, which had just gone out of 
office, opposed any resumption of authority over the Sou- 
dan. But the movement was popular. " The man in the 



EGYPT 303 

Street " cried, " Let us avenge Gordon ! " the military spirit 
in England was aroused, and the country, with bated breath, 
waited the outcome of the expedition. 

Public feeling in ten years had undergone a remarkable 
reversal. The country had always in its heart regarded the 
evacuation of the Soudan with regret and shame. This was 
increased when the reports of Father Ohrwalder and Slatin 
Pasha revealed the character of the ruler to whom England 
had delivered over some millions of human beings. "These 
considerations gradually triumphed over the fear and hatred 
of Soudan warfare which a long series of profitless cam- 
paigns had created in the minds of the average English tax- 
payers. The reconquest of the Soudan became again, as 
far as English public opinion was concerned, a practical 
question." 

Over Egypt, during the English occupation of the coun- 
try from 1882 to 1898, hung, like a threatening cloud, dan- 
ger from the Soudan. The constantly hostile Dervish power 
upon the frontier of Egypt was a perpetual menace, more 
wearing, more costly, than any campaign. 

" Egypt will never quite sit down beneath our rule," said 
poor George Warrington Steevens, at the beginning of 1898, 
" so long as we have an enemy unbeaten on the south, and 
the very being of Mahdism forbids the possibility that the 
enemy should ever be a friend." 

What is the English rule in Egypt? Logically speaking, 
it is a queer anomaly. 

The occupation has lasted since 1882, in spite of Mr. 
Gladstone's vague assurances that it would be held only 
until England could establish order, and Egypt be fitted to 
take care of herself. 

" Before the British occupation, Egypt had become virtu- 
ally bankrupt. Fifteen years ago she was rebellious, mis- 
erable, depressed, defeated. To-day she is solvent, orderly, 
prosperous, well governed, and victorious." 

There are classes in Egypt who profess to desire the de- 
parture of English troops and the restoration of " Egypt to 
the Egyptians." The most powerful of these is the aristo- 



304 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

cratic class, headed by the Khedive. Under their rule Egypt 
would go back to its former vile condition. It would not 
mean "Egypt for the Egyptians," for the official class is all 
of foreign birth or foreign lineage. The strength and weak- 
ness of Arabi's rebellion was in the fact that he was an Egyp- 
tian. The statesmen of the official class were Armenians, 
the military officers were Circassians. Naturally the Khe- 
dive desires to be reheved from tutelage, and the old official 
class desire offices ; but all, however they may gird or 
grumble against British rule, are agreed that if the English 
were to leave the country to-morrow, they would leave it 
too. " The wise, with their property, would go," said a 
certain Pasha, " in the last boat before the English took 
their departure ; the unwise, despoiled of their wealth, 
would leave Egypt in the first boat that followed it." " If 
you English went to-morrow, it would be ruin," said an- 
other Pasha to Mr. Steevens, while almost in the same 
breath he was grumbling at the hardship of having to sit 
still and obey English masters. 

The most clear and concise account of the English rule 
in Egypt that I have met is in the little book called " Egypt 
in 1898," where, in his own amusing style, in a very few 
pages, G. W. Steevens makes us understand what was the 
condition of things in Egypt de facto and de jure, three 
years ago.* 

In theory, Egypt belongs to Great Britain no more than 
Shepheard's Hotel belongs to the traveller who puts up 
there. British garrisons in Cairo and Alexandria are sup- 
posed to be there to maintain the authority of the Khedive 
and to restore order. In fact, they are there to maintain 
British authority, which protects the Khedive and maintains 
order. Egypt is now as orderly a country as exists on earth, 
and without English authority the Khedive might soon find 
himself overthrown by his suzerain, the Sultan, or by another 
Arabi. The real suzerain of the Khedive of Egypt, as every 
one knows, is Lord Cromer, but in theory Lord Cromer is not 

1 My account is an abridgment of that of Mr. Steevens. 



EGYPT 305 

even an ambassador, but just a consul-general. He is called 
a British agent, an office which has no authority, and may 
mean anything or nothing. There is also a class of English- 
men in Egypt not in the service of Lord Cromer (by whom 
they are controlled), but in the Egyptian service, — the 
Khedive's judicial adviser, his adviser as to public works, his 
advisers in affairs of the interior, the treasury, and educa- 
tion. There is also the Sirdar, the English commander-in- 
chief of the Egyptian army, at his war office. In theory, 
all these men are subordinate to the Khedive's Cabinet : 
they can only suggest reforms ; but the Ministers and the 
Khedive know perfectly well that they are expected to 
approve of them. 

There are, besides this complication of de facto and de 
Jure, two very great difficulties in the way of a satisfactory 
government in Egypt, — the Caisse de la Dette, and the 
Capitulations. 

Before the English occupation, Egypt had been made 
bankrupt by maladministration and the reckless extrava- 
gance of Ismail Pasha. So in the interest of her creditors 
and foreign bond-holders Europe set up the Caisse de la 
Dette. Over this preside six personages, each one the 
representative of some Great Power. The revenue of 
Egypt is divided into two nearly equal parts : one half goes 
into the Caisse, to pay the bond-holders; the other half 
is for Egyptian uses. But however short of money the 
Egyptian Government may be, and however great the 
surplus in the hands of the Caisse, the Government cannot 
touch a cent of it, unless the six representatives who pre- 
side over the Caisse agree to it unanimously. Hitherto 
France and Russia have always objected, although the 
needs of Egypt have been pressing, and the surplus (when 
bond-holders were all paid) has amounted to six or seven 
millions of pounds sterling. 

The capitulations are a system forced by civilized coun- 
tries on semi-barbarous peoples ostensibly for the protec- 
tion of their subjects or citizens. A year or two since 
Japan, vehemently protesting that she was civilized, forced 



306 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the Powers in her case to do away with the capitulations. 
By virtue of them, if a foreigner commit an offence in a 
half-civilized country, the offender must be tried by his 
own consul, under the laws of his own land, and not under 
those of the country in which the offence was committed. 
" For example," says Mr. Steevens : — 

" If I were to go out of Shepheard's Hotel now and shoot an 
Egyptian, and then go into a Frenchman's house, the Egyptian 
police could not enter the house without the presence of the 
French Consul, and could not arrest me without the presence 
of the English Consul, and by him I should be tried. 

" Egypt is full of foreigners, especially of Greeks. The 
Greek courts, which formerly used to aid and abet their country- 
men in all manner of crimes, have lately become much more 
judicial, but it is in the power of Greece if she refuse to convict 
her subjects, to let them go on assaulting and burgling at large 
throughout Egypt unconvicted of any crime." 

Another grievance is that by the capitulations Egypt 
is deprived of the power of taxing foreigners in the same 
ratio as she can tax her own people ; and as many of the 
wealthiest men in Egypt are foreigners, and many foreign- 
ers are the most rascally people in the country, the capitu- 
lations add a new perplexity to the task of government. 
However, by sheer unconscious English genius for rule, 
during the past nineteen years marvellous things in Egypt 
have been accomplished. 

The man at the head of all these improvements is Lord 
Cromer, a member of the great banking family. Baring 
Brothers, so long associated with American affairs. 

Mild, gentlemanly, soft-voiced, and fluent of speech, he 
would not seem a man cut out by nature to exact obedience 
from an Oriental ruler. But " velvet as long as he can, 
steel as soon as he must, — that is Lord Cromer. ... At 
his back he has had England ; only too often it has been 
an England that did not know her own mind. But his 
own mind Lord Cromer has always known, and when things 
went too far, his opponents came to know it too." 

In the spring of the present year 1900, Lord Cromer 



EGYPT 307 

made his annual report on Egyptian affairs, in which he 
tells us that 

" for the past year Egypt has had a revenue of over $55,000,000, 
and a surplus of over $2,000,000. The surplus would have 
been larger but for the sinking-fund requirement, imposed by 
the International Control of Egyptian bond-holders. The sink- 
ing fund now amounts to nearly $40,000,000. In attaining this 
signal success. Lord Cromer has benefited not only the financial, 
but also the industrial and social worlds. He has not obtained 
his augmented revenues by augmented taxation; on the con- 
trary, the fellahin are not burdened by the oppressive taxation 
which existed before the English came into power in Egypt. 
Further to help the fellahin, the Consul-General recently carried 
into effect a scheme of government loans at ten per cent; the 
fellahin had been paying four times that percentage to usurers. 
When Lord Cromer assumed authority in Egypt, only the slow- 
moving dahabiya was a means of communication; now there 
are hundreds of steamers on the Nile, and the country is grid- 
ironed with railways. An excellent postal service, which in- 
cludes a telegraph service, has been established, and the returns 
from both the State railways and the postal departments show 
a surplus. The Nile has been the lowest on record during the 
past season, but the treasury is strong enough to meet the loss 
arising from this source ; in olden times a low Nile would have 
meant famine. In a few years the great Assouan dam now 
building promises a continuous distribution of the river-flow. 
As in the case of General Wood's reforms in Cuba, all of these 
improvements have been carried out with but a part of the bur- 
den of taxation which the Khedives once levied to support their 
useless civilization and their make-believe government. "^ 

1 Outlook, May 5, 1900. 



CHAPTER 11 

THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 

AT midnight on March 12, 1896, the Sirdar received 
'^^ orders to reopen hostihties with the Dervishes in the 
Soudan and with their master, the Khalifa Abdullahi, by 
marching with his Egyptian army into the province of 
Dongola, which lies south of Wady Haifa on the right bank 
of the Nile. Dongola, the most fertile province of the 
Soudan, is contained in a great loop between Abu Hammed 
and Wady Haifa, made by the mighty river. 

March was not a favorable season for the advance, for 
the Nile was low, but operations had been delayed by the 
difficulties arising from the refusal of the Caisse de la Dette 
to grant Egypt any money from its surplus of ;^6,ooo,ooo 
($29,000,000) for war expenses. However, England made 
up the deficiency ; and although the army that made the 
Dongola campaign was always straitened for funds, the 
work went on. To strengthen the force under Kitchener, 
all available troops were drawn from the unhealthy island 
station of Suakim on the Red Sea, and an Indian brigade, 
the flower of the native Indian army, a force partly com- 
posed of Sikhs, landed at Suakim. They were full of 
enthusiasm, for the Sikh soldier, no less than his officer, 
heartily enjoys being sent on foreign service ; for when 
he returns to his village the fact that he has made a 
foreign campaign procures him the deference of his 
inferiors and the respect of his equals. They had not 
expected to do garrison duty in a miserable, pestiferous, 
cholera-stricken town on the Red Sea. They thought 
that they were to be sent forward to the front to fight the 
Dervishes. But a dispute had arisen between the Indian 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN' 309 

and the Egyptian governments concerning their pay. The 
former contended that being on foreign service they must 
be paid by the Egyptian (in other words, the English) 
Government ; the latter, already short of funds, said that as 
the Indian Government must pay and feed its own troops 
anywhere, Egypt was responsible for only their trans- 
portation and war expenses. Besides this, bitter disputes 
arose between the men and officers of the Indian con- 
tingent and the men and officers of the small remnant 
of the Egyptian force still left at Suakim in garrison. The 
Indians jeered at the Egyptians, and cast up against them 
the record of their countrymen under Hicks and at El Teb. 
The Egyptians and their officers resented this, and the dis- 
pute became so bitter that when in a few months the 
Indian contingent — decimated by malaria and cholera 
— was ordered home to India, " the Egyptian Government 
terminated a policy of studied slights by neglecting to give 
the farewell salute which the customs and courtesies of 
military service prescribed." 

It had been planned that the garrison of Egyptian 
troops removed from Suakim should march on Kassala, 
now in possession of the Dervishes, and thence form a 
junction with the Sirdar's army when it should reach Abu 
Hammed, But in the end the Egyptians were ordered to 
cross the desert and join the miscellaneous force concen- 
trating at Wady Haifa for the Dongola campaign. The 
Sirdar's army was composed of about ten thousand in- 
fantry, nine hundred cavalry, one thousand men in the 
camel corps, two thousand engaged in transportation, and 
some Arabic irregulars. In the transportation service were 
probably included the eight hundred men of the Railway 
Battalion, — navvies, in short, with military discipline and 
pay. This branch of the service was popular with the 
Egyptian fellahin. The fellah had been born and bred to 
work with a shovel in sand and mud. All the fatigue 
duty, so little liked by white soldiers, but that somebody 
must do in every army, was undertaken by the fellah with 
industry and cheerfulness. He is not like the black soldier 



310 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

from the Soudan, a fighting animal by nature ; he is not 
even trained to love any kind of sport. Conscripted into 
the railway service, he had to shovel for his country, instead 
of fighting for her, with better treatment and better pay 
(a piastre, or five cents a day) than he could earn by 
shovelling in his native village. He is strong, patient, 
cheerful, industrious, and obedient, and has been con- 
verted by British officers and careful drill sergeants into 
an admirable soldier, proud of his service and deeply 
attached to his white superiors. In the Dongola campaign 
three-fourths of the army were fellahin. The cavalry were 
all Egyptians, for it was found that the Soudanese blacks 
would not care for their horses. The native regiments were 
for the most part officered by young subalterns drawn from 
the English army, doing work in the Egyptian service ; 
none in the Egyptian army were under the rank of Bim- 
bashi (that is. Major), A colonel was a Bey, which signifies 
a Commander. Assuredly these men vindicated the right 
of youth to be intrusted with command and responsibility. 
Some of the regiments, however, had native officers ; for 
the most part these were Turks, Circassians, and Armenians 
who had entered the Egyptian service. 

Far back in the days of Ismail, the ruinously extravagant, 
but progressive Khedive, a railway had been projected from 
Cairo to Khartoum. It was to follow up the right bank 
of the Nile to Wady Haifa, and there was talk that it then 
might strike across the desert to Abu Hammed, but all 
men of experience conceived this to be an impossibility. 
The Sirdar did not think so. He revived the project. 
Ismail's railway had been broken up from Sarras, a place 
upon the Nile south of VVady Haifa ; and from Sarras to 
Akasha, which was as far as surveys had been made in 
Ismail's time, even the embankments had been destroyed. 

Three or four young English engineers under a French 
Canadian, Bimbashi Girouard, took this railroad in hand. 
The line was to be restored and put in working order as 
speedily as possible. All Haifa was turned into railway 
storehouses and workshops. The greatest difficulty was 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 311 

with the engines. There were none but old broken-down 
derelict locomotives, many of which had lain rusting and 
out of service for many years. These had to be patched 
and repatched every time they went up or down the line. 
After the Dongola Campaign, during which the railroad 
had to make the best of what it could get, some new 
engines were sent out from England and from Baldwin's 
shops in Philadelphia, and Steevens tells us it was amusing 
to watch the black sentry looking up to one of them in 
admiration, and then warily around lest anybody should 
be upon the watch to steal it. 

The Sirdar's force was concentrated at Wady Haifa by the 
middle of April. Then it marched to Akasha ; the Nile 
and the railroad, so far as possible, carrying its supplies. It 
was four days' march to Akasha. Thence its objective point 
was Firkeh, near the bottom of the great loop formed by 
the Nile around Dongola, the most fertile province in the 
Soudan. 

There was a sharp engagement at Firkeh on the 7th of 
June. The Dervishes were taken by surprise. At first they 
fought desperately, but soon, finding themselves attacked 
both in front and flank, they retired from the field, leaving in 
Firkeh their camels, ammunition, and many of their women. 
As soon as the black Soudanese riflemen of the Dervish 
army saw the Baggara horsemen ride off, together with their 
two principal Emirs, they ceased to fight. The Sirdar's 
army won a complete victory, and the conduct of the 
Egyptian soldiers received the highest praise. The ranks 
of the Soudanese regiments were recruited from among their 
late enemies, who gladly took service with their country- 
men in the Egyptian army, and the inhabitants of Firkeh 
welcomed their new masters with enthusiasm. 

The next stage in the army's advance was to march on 
New Dongola, the capital of the province, where the Der- 
vishes had laid up large stores of grain, and to which the 
Emir Wad Bishara, defeated at Firkeh, had retired. 

In accounts of this campaign we meet on every page 
names that have now become familiar to us as household 



312 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

words, — Hector MacDonald, General Hunter, Colonel 
Broadwood, and others. 

But while the army waited in camp upon the Nile, expec- 
tant of the river's rise, which was very late that year, and with- 
out which they could not get their gunboats or transports 
over the Second Cataract, cholera broke out among them. 

" The violence of the battle may be cheaply braved, but the 
insidious attacks of disease appall the boldest. Death moved 
continuously about the ranks of the army, — not the death they 
had been trained to meet unflinchin<j;ly, — • the death in high enthu- 
siasm and in the pride of life, with all the world to weep or 
cheer, — but a silent, unnoticed, almost ignominious summons, 
scarcely less sudden and far more painful than the bullet or the 
sword-cut. The Egyptians, in spite of their fatalistic creed, 
manifested profound depression. The English soldier was 
moody and ill-tempered. Even the light-hearted Soudanese lost 
their spirits, their merry grins were seen no longer, their laughter 
and their drums were stilled. Only the British officers preserved 
a strong cheerfulness, and ceaselessly endeavored, by energy 
and example, to sustain the courage of their men. Yet they 
suffered most of all. Their education had developed their im- 
aginations ; and imagination, elsewhere a priceless gift, is, amid 
such circumstances, a dangerous burden. It was, indeed, a time 
of sore trouble. To find the servant dead in the camp kitchen ; 
to catch a hurried glimpse of blanketed shapes hurried to the 
desert on a stretcher, to hold the lantern over the grave into 
which a friend or comrade — alive and well six hours before — 
was hastily lowered, even though it was still night; and through 
it all to work incessanUy, at pressure, in the solid, roaring heat, 
with a mind ever on the watch for the earliest of the fatal 
.symptoms, and a thirst that could only be quenched by the 
deadly contaminated waters of the Nile, — all these things com- 
bined to produce an experience which those who endured it are 
unwilling to remember, but unlikely to forget." ^ 

At last the river rose. But the wind, usually from the 
north, blew this year hot and adverse from the south for 
forty days, impeding navigation and the passage of the 
gunboats up the river. 

The Second Cataract has a total descent of sixty feet, and 

1 " The River War." W. S. Churchill. 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 313 

is nine miles long, with a very narrow channel. It had been 
calculated that on the rise of the Nile in July the gunboats 
and gyasses, or grain barges, would have been able to pass 
the cataract, but up to the middle of August this appeared 
impossible. There, by the Staffordshire Regiment ^ and the 
Egyptians, a steamer was literally hauled over the rocks and 
the cataract. Six other vessels were passed over in like 
manner for six successive days, and in a week the whole 
flotilla was in open water ready to sail up the Nile to New 
Dongola. Then the army marched one hundred and 
twenty miles across the desert ; while, as the river was 
rising, the boats ascended the Third Cataract without 
difficulty. 

While the troops were on the march, a tremendous storm 
of thunder, wind, and rain arose, for the Soudan has its rainy 
season. The Sirdar had not anticipated such an obstruction. 
The rains not only impeded the march (called " the Dead 
March" by the men who suffered in it), but it washed 
away the embankments of more than twelve miles of the 
railway, and the telegraph wires were broken. The Sirdar 
hastened to the scene of disaster ; in a few hours he had 
five thousand men at work on sections of the broken line. 
Then a new misfortune was reported to him; the "Zafir," 
the gunboat on which so many hopes seemed to depend, 
had broken her cylinder. She was useless. As her captain 
made his report, the Sirdar stood for a moment speechless ; 
then he said, " By Heaven, Colville ! I don't know which 
of us has the hardest luck, — you or I." 

But in a day or two he had revised his calculations, and 
the army again moved on. 

Wad Bishara, the best and bravest of the Dervish Emirs, 
had concentrated his forces in New Dongola. He had not 
a large force ; nine hundred Jehadin (Soudanese natives 
called forth for a Holy War against the infidel), eight hun- 

1 It pleases me to record the brave deeds of the Staffordshire 
Regiment, because my grandfather, Capt. James Wormeley, a Vir- 
ginian, served twenty years with the Stafford Militia Regiment, 
appointed the King's body-guard. 



314 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

dred Baggara horsemen, twenty-eight hundred spearmen, 
etc. ; in all, about fifty-six hundred men. 

As the Sirdar's army advanced, strong positions where 
the Dervishes had been expected to show fight were found 
deserted. Bishara, conscious of his weakness, had put the 
river between himself and the enemy. He was now on the 
left bank, prepared to prevent the armed flotilla from pass- 
ing another cataract. 

It was an exciting scene, and the Dervishes fought bravely, 
though an action with artillery was not fighting in which 
they were supposed to shine. Their leaders, Wad Bishara 
and Osman Azrak, had been both wounded ; and Bishara, 
fearful lest his retreat should be cut off, decided, when the 
gunboats had got past his lines at Hafir, not to defend New 
Dongola, but to retire to the south. The Egyptian army 
crossed the river ready to fight. But the disparity of the 
forces was too great, and as the Egyptian army advanced, 
their foes slowly retired. They did not attempt to re-enter 
New Dongola ; and when the Egyptians reached it, they 
found it already in possession of English detachments from 
the flotilla. The retreating army was hotly pursued into 
the desert. " Their line of retreat was strewn with weapons 
and other effects, and so many babies were abandoned by 
their parents that an artillery wagon had to be employed 
to collect and carry them." 

Thus the first step had been made in putting down the 
Dervishes. After ten years, in which they had stood on 
the defensive, they had been at last attacked, and proved 
not so very terrible as public opinion in England had sup- 
posed. The campaign had ended ; the army remained in- 
active so far as fighting went until 1897, preparing to reach 
Abu Hammed and Berber, and thence undertake a cam- 
paign to Omdurman farther up the Nile. 

The navigation of the river on this part of its course was, 
however, so very difficult that the Sirdar determined to 
carry the railway across the Nubian Desert from Wady 
Haifa to Abu Hammed. There is no more interesting 
chapter in Winston Spencer Churchill's " River War " than 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 315 

that which relates to the construction of the Desert Rail- 
way, but here it must be sufficient to say that the work was 
begun at Wady Haifa on the first day of the year 1897, 
and on the 3d of November of the same year, Sir Herbert 
Kitchener had the satisfaction of travelling to Abu Hammed 
over the line which owed its existence to his judgment, ac- 
complishing in sixteen hours a journey which had previously 
required ten days. Since then on this railway three hun- 
dred and eighty- four miles has been made in thirteen hours 
from Fort Atbara to Wady Haifa. 

When news that Dongola had been captured reached the 
Khalifa, confidence in his cause seemed to fail him. All 
business in Omdurman was at a standstill. Abdullahi shut 
himself up in his own house for five days. Then he came 
forth, proceeded to the mosque, and after service, addressed 
his people. He dwelt on the accounts he had received of 
the cholera and other afflictions in the Egyptian army. 
He deplored the pusillanimity of the Soudanese who had 
surrendered, but with grim satisfaction enlarged on the 
horrible tortures they were likely to receive from their 
English and Egyptian captors. He bewailed the lack of 
faith in God which had led some to desert the Holy War, 
and he reasserted his own trust in God and in the prophe- 
cies of the late Mahdi. He ended by saying that the Angel 
of the Lord and the spirit of the Mahdi had warned him 
in a vision that the souls of the accursed Egyptians and of 
the miserable English should leave their bodies between 
Dongola and Omdurman at some spot where the ground 
would be whitened by their bones. Then, drawing his 
sword, he cried with a loud voice, " Islam shall triumph ! 
Our rehgion is victorious ! " Then, when the cheering of 
his audience had subsided, he gave free permission to all 
who did not intend to remain faithful to him to go away. 

Meantime, he assigned posts to his Emirs, and made 
preparations to oppose the advance of the Sirdar's army, 
which he concluded would be by the same route taken by 
the expeditionary force under General Wolseley in 1885. 

After a time, however, it became evident that the " Turks " 



3l6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

(as the Dervishes called the Egyptians) were not advancing. 
Conjecture failed to discover a reason why they had not 
followed up their success at Dongola. By the beginning 
of 1897 the Khalifa and his people had taken heart, and 
he was making preparations for an attack upon his enemy. 
All this was known to the Sirdar through Colonel Wingate 
and his Intelligence Department, The Khalifa assembled 
his Emirs round him in Omdurman. His idea was evi- 
dently that the great battle foretold to him by the angel of 
the Lord and the spirit of the Mahdi would be fought on 
the plain outside that city, where indeed the battle of Om- 
durman did at length take place, only its result was very 
different from that which the Khalifa expected. 

Mahmud with a large force was summoned from Kordo- 
fan. The loyalty of the Jaalin tribe, whose possessions ex- 
tended along the river from the Egyptian frontier to 
Metammeh, was greatly doubted by the Khalifa, and not 
unreasonably, for they had been most cruelly treated by 
the Dervishes. He summoned Abdulla, their chief, to an 
interview, in which he told him he should send Mahmud 
with his army into their country, to defend them from the 
enemy, and that they might show their loyalty by furnish- 
ing these troops with supplies. The chief, knowing that 
the quartering of an army of Dervishes upon his people 
would mean the plunder of their goods, the ruin of their 
homes, and the forcible abduction of their women, reas- 
serted his loyalty, but protested against having the burden 
of an army imposed upon his people. The Khalifa grew 
furious. He abused both Abdulla and the Jaalin. The 
chief retired from his presence, and, on returning to his 
tribe, related to them what had passed. At once they 
decided to revolt and join the Egyptians. Then Abdulla 
wrote two letters. One was to the Sirdar, entreating for 
assistance ; the other, in a tone of defiance, was written to 
the Khalifa. 

Unhappily the answer to the latter letter arrived first, for 
Mahmud's army at once invested and stormed Metammeh. 
Abdulla was killed, and frightful revenge was taken on his 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 317 

people. The few who escaped met in the desert those 
sent by the Sirdar to their assistance, but it was too late. 
Little remained of the Jaalin but corpses and ruins. 

Abu Hammed, toward which the Sirdar was directing 
his railroad, attracted little attention from the Khalifa, nor 
did he seem to appreciate the value of the desert line. 
There was only a small garrison at Abu Hammed when 
General Hunter, the pride and darling of the Egyptian 
army, was sent forward to take possession of it. When 
this was done, the railway advanced rapidly. 

An amusing and characteristic anecdote is told of the 
Sirdar at this time by Mr. Churchill. He wanted a field 
telegraph to connect headquarters with his flying column. 
He sent for the enterprising and capable officer in charge, 
and told him to make arrangements to lay the wire as the 
force advanced. The officer for once was at a loss. He 
pointed out that there were no appliances for laying wire, 
no spools to unwind it from, no saddles to carry it, not 
even any transport animals. The Sirdar looked annoyed. 
After a little reflection he directed the officer to collect 
some donkeys from the villagers, who for daily rations 
would be glad with their donkeys to accompany the flying 
column. The next morning when the donkeys were col- 
lected the officer ventured to ask where the saddles and 
other appliances were to come from. 

The Sirdar came slowly to the spot where the telegraph 
plant was collected. He picked up the largest coil of 
wire, and selected the smallest donkey. Then taking the 
little animal's two hind legs in his left hand he put them 
through the coil, and lifted the wire till it was in the 
middle of the beast's back. Taking hold of the loose 
end of the wire, he smacked the donkey with his other 
hand. The little beast moved on, the wire uncoiled, and 
by this method the field telegraph accompanied the flying 
column. 

The next place of importance south of Abu Hammed was 
Berber. The Sirdar had not intended to occupy it until he 
had brought his steamers over some more cataracts on the 



3l8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Nile. But the sudden dart on Abu Hammed had caused 
great consternation among the Dervishes. Zeki Osman, 
the Emir in command at Berber, despairing of reinforce- 
ments, and fearing the treachery of the exasperated local 
tribes, evacuated the city. This astounding news reached 
General Hunter at Abu Hammed on August 27. He sent 
out a reconnoitring party which found the surrounding 
country ready to welcome the Egyptians. There were no 
Dervish troops in the town, and the reconnoitring party, 
consisting chiefly of Arab irregulars, took possession of it, 
and sent back word to Abu Hammed how they had cap- 
tured the city. 

The deed was done, and though it interfered with the 
Sirdar's plan of campaign, he ordered General Hunter to 
occupy Berber. On September 5, the Egyptian flag floated 
over the town. The gunboats also were by this time up 
the stream. The Sirdar with a small escort came riding 
across the desert to Abu Hammed, and hastily prepared to 
meet the developments which he saw might follow at once, 
but which he had not expected until the next spring. 

Berber stands in a fertile district, and stretches seven 
miles along the Nile. It consists of two towns, one utterly 
destroyed by the Dervishes, twelve years before this time, 
and the new town built to replace it. Both are foul and 
unhealthy. Berber had been called the Emporium of the 
Soudan trade ; but the English officers who entered it found 
only five thousand men and seven thousand women in the 
place, all miserable and as destitute of property as their 
houses were of elegance or cleanliness. 

The capture of Berber destroyed Osman Digna's influence 
with the tribes around Suakim, in the neighborhood of the 
Red Sea. The route from Suakim to Berber, where it had 
once been proposed to make a railroad, was now open, 
and small caravans began to travel it, for the first time in 
thirteen years. 

The gunboat flotilla, having passed the Fifth Cataract, 
and having with no decided result bombarded Mahmud in 
Metammeh, had to remain where it was, as it could not 



THE DONGOLA CAMPAIGN 319 

return down the Nile until the river was again at flood. 
It was, however, in no great danger. The river was wide, 
and the Egyptians controlled the left bank, where the 
riverine population favored them. 

Kassala, which had been taken by the Italians from the 
Dervishes, was still held by a small Italian garrison, though 
their countrymen had retired from Abyssinia. But on 
Christmas day, 1897, Kassala was made over to Colonel 
Parsons with a small garrison, who were to hold it for the 
Khedive of Egypt, and the Union Jack and the Khedival 
Crescent succeeded the Italian flag. 

Several times during the early months of 1898 rumors 
reached the Sirdar that the Khalifa was contemplating an 
advance ; and indeed he twice attempted it, but his plans 
were frustrated by jealousies among his Emirs. He fell 
back on Omdurman, where he concentrated a great force, 
leaving Mahmud with his army from Kordofan to threaten 
Kitchener's flank or rear if he moved forward. 

The Sirdar concentrated his own army on the right 
bank of the Nile, bringing it by the Desert Railway from 
Wady Haifa, and he earnestly requested a brigade of British 
troops to reinforce his army. This was at once despatched 
under Major-General 'Gatacre, — an officer esteemed as 
a man of high character and ability. He had gained 
a great reputation in the Chitral campaign. Then he was 
ordered to Bombay to carry on a more desperate contest 
with the bubonic plague and native superstition. He left 
India, leaving behind him golden opinions, and was very 
shortly sent to the Soudan to reinforce the Sirdar. " He 
was a spare man of middle size, of great physical strength 
and energy, of marked capacity and unquestioned courage, 
but disturbed by a restless irritation to which even the 
most inordinate activity afforded little relief, and which often 
left him the exhausted victim of his own vitality." ^ 

The railway was being pushed on the right bank of the 
Nile as rapidly as possible to where the Atbara flows into 
the still more mighty river. 

1 " River War." W. S. Churchill. 



320 LAST YEARS OF THE NIi\ETEENTH CENTURY 

The Anglo-Egyptian army reached Fort Atbara, and 
formed a camp a few miles off at Ras-el-Hudi, where better 
water could be procured. 

While the army was waiting there for the order to 
advance, an expedition was planned to Shendi, farther up 
the Nile. When Mahmud, after ravaging Metammeh, took 
up his quarters on the right bank of the Nile, he made 
a sort of depot at Shendi, in which he left the wives of his 
Emirs, and part of his stores. A detachment from the 
Anglo- Egyptian army crossed the river, and without diffi- 
culty took possession of Shendi. When the Dervishes fled, 
pursuit was left to the Jaalin, who boasted that they killed a 
hundred and sixty of them, — a revenge that must have been 
doubly sweet since it was consummated near Metammeh, 
the scene of the destruction of their chief and his people. 
The wives of the chief Emirs made their escape to Omdur- 
man, but upwards of six hundred and fifty women and 
children of inferior rank were taken prisoners. Most of 
these women remarried with Soudanese soldiers, " and as 
far as can be ascertained," says Mr. Churchill, " lived 
happily ever after." This may be the place to say that, 
as Soudanese blacks are enlisted for life in the Egyptian 
army, they are allowed to have their wives, who accompany 
them until they are in active service, when shelter and 
protection are found for the women in some strong post 
to the rear. 



CHAPTER III 

ATBARA AND OMDURMAN 

"\^7"ADY HALFA is two hundred and thirty-four miles 
* * from Abu Hammed. Everybody said and thought 
that to carry a railroad across the great waterless desert 
which separated the two places was an impossibility ; never- 
theless, the thing has been done. The road was actually 
begun and half completed, while one end of the line was in 
the undisturbed possession of the enemy. The deadliest 
weapon England ever forged against Mahdism was the 
Soudan Military Railway. Water was bored for, and at 
once gushed forth abundant, clear, and excellent. This 
seems almost like a miracle ; for though in eight other 
places it was bored for in like manner, no other supply 
could be found. 

By the end of 1897, the road, which had left the Nile at 
VVady Haifa to cross the Nubian Desert, met it again at 
Abu Hammed, from which place it was necessary to con- 
struct one hundred and forty-nine miles more railroad to 
the Atbara. 

It was a great object to get the road as speedily as 
possible past the Fifth Cataract, about twenty miles below 
Berber. The line had to carry materials for its own con- 
struction. There was not even wood along its route with 
which to make the cross-ties. 

At the Atbara the line had to wait for a bridge before it 
could go on, as it does now, to Khartoum. The contract for 
the bridge was given to workshops in America ; no English 
firm would venture to promise it in such short time as that 
in America, which already had in hand a similar bridge to 
be thrown over one of our Western rivers. 



322 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The Sirdar, Sir Herbert Kitchener, was only forty-eight 
when he made both his splendid campaign to Khartoum 
and his wonderful railroad ; for in a certain sense both 
may be said to be the work of the talent for organization 
of this remarkable man. " You cannot imagine," says 
G. W. Steevens, " the Sirdar otherwise than as seeing the 
right thing, and then doing it. . . . He is never in a hurry. 
With immovable self-control, he holds back from each step 
till the ground is consolidated under the last." And this 
trait in his character must have been severely tried when, 
for eighteen months after the capture of Dongola, he had 
to delay his advance on Khartoum. His soldiers, who put 
their whole trust in him, had a saying among themselves, 
"The Sirdar won't fight if he isn't going to win." 

At last the moment seemed to be approaching. The 
Dervishes, who could not estimate the Sirdar like his own 
men, had been long wondering why he did not attack 
them. The Khalifa had assembled a great army in and 
around Omdurman, which remained inactive, though a large 
force under Mahmud and Osman Digna (who cordially 
disliked each other) was ordered to lie in the way of the 
advance on the right bank of the Nile. 

In March, 1898, the advanced post of the English army 
was at Fort Atbara, twenty-three miles south of Berber. 
It consisted of three Egyptian brigades and one British. 
This last was under General Hunter, the '' sword-arm of 
the army." MacDonald was with it, and Major-General 
Gatacre, fresh from India, had just brought out reinforce- 
ments from England. It is thus that the correspondent of 
the " Daily Mail " describes him : — 

" General Gatacre came up with a great reputation, which 
he seized every occasion to increase. His one overmastering 
quality is tireless, abounding, almost superhuman energy. Of 
middle height and lightly built, his body is all steel and wire. 
As a man, he radiates a gentle, serious courtesy. . . . In the 
ranks they call him ' General Back-acher,' and love him. Some 
thought he drove his officers and men a little hard. But, ever 
attentive to the needs of the soldiers under him, he was tireless 




LORD CROMER. 



A TEAR A AND OMDURMAN 323 

in giving personal attention to see that nobody wanted for what 
could be obtained." 

Osman Digna, who has given the British for many years 
more trouble than all the other Emirs put together, may 
not, as I have said before, be by race an Arab. The Turks 
claimed that his parentage was partly Turkish ; there evi- 
dently was a general understanding that somehow he was 
not of pure Arab blood. He has not been eminent for 
generalship nor for personal bravery, but he is beyond 
question a man of great ability and dogged persistence. 

The march up the right bank of the Nile was a great 
strain on the physical powers of troops recently arrived 
from England ; nevertheless, they made ninety-eight miles 
within three days. At Fort Atbara only Egyptians were 
quartered ; the place was too malarious for white soldiers, 
who had their camp at Ras-el-Hudi, a few miles up the 
Atbara River. There was a little green on the Atbara, a 
sight rarely seen in the Soudan. 

" One bank too was thick with mimosa and dom-palms, and 
tufted with grass, — great coarse bunches, mostly as thick as 
straw, and as yellow, — but a few blades remained a sapless 
green, and horses and camels went without their sleep to tear 
at them. The camels eat the mimosa too ; they rear up their 
affected heads, and ecstatically crunch thorns that would run 
any other beast's tongue through ; their lips drop blood, but 
they never notice it. And the blacks eat the dom nuts, — 
things like petrified prize apricots, whose kernel makes vegeta- 
ble ivory. Sambo was never tired of shying at them, and 
Private Atkins lent a hand with enthusiasm. Then Sambo 
would grin all round his head, and crack the flinty things with 
his shining teeth, while Tommy gazed on him with wonder." 

The real enemy the English and Egyptians had to 
encounter was not the Dervishes, but the Soudan. Mean- 
time though Mahmud was known to be on the right bank 
of the great river somewhere between the Blue Nile and 
the Atbara, day after day the Sirdar's army could not find 
him. General Hunter at last, in a reconnaissance on the 



324 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

last day of March, caught sight of his zariba. A zariba is, 
in Soudanese warfare, what a laager is in South Africa, 
except that the latter is a barrier of wagons erected round 
an encampment, and the zariba is an erection of thorny 
bushes closely interwoven ; it is carried often to a great 
height, and claimed to be as impenetrable as if made of 
barbed wires. The place on the Atbara where the Der- 
vishes were encamped was called Nakheila. It was not 
more than twenty miles from the camp of the Sirdar. 

But the delay had been very trying to the British troops, 
both men and officers. Under the idea that they were 
campaigning in the tropics, officers had brought only one 
blanket for each man, and no overcoats. They had not 
realized that the Soudan, so broiling hot by day, can be 
bitterly cold at night, and they suffered accordingly. When 
General Hunter's men returned to camp, they reported that 
the zariba round Mahmud's encampment was very high, 
very dense, and very prickly. The duty of first attacking 
it had been assigned to the Camerons, whose Highland 
dress did not seem the uniform best adapted to force a 
way through a wall of thorns. But the Camerons were 
delighted that such a feat should have been assigned to 
them. 

The attack was to be made in the early morning of 
April 8, which was Good Friday. The day began for the 
Anglo-Egyptians at an hour past midnight, when, favored 
by a bright moon, they set forward to engage the enemy. 
They had with them a mountain battery, a field battery, 
and two batteries of Maxim guns. To fight with an army 
at long range was not the Dervishes' idea of warfare. Their 
mode of fighting was to make a swift rush upon their enemy, 
to hurl their spears, to fire their rifles, and to fling clubs at 
the legs of the horses. It was thus that they had annihi- 
lated Hicks's army. But the new weapons of destruction 
which mowed them down from a distance confused their 
tactics, and seemed to take all heart out of the Baggara 
horsemen. The Jehadin from Kordofan " fought but to 
die ; " each man hoping, before he died himself, to kill one 



ATBARA AND OMDURMAN 325 

of the infidels. The Jehadin had been enlisted for a Holy 
War ; they felt certain of the help of Allah and the discom- 
fiture of the invaders ; each man if he fell was sure of Para- 
dise. Meantime the miscellaneous army of Englishmen, 
black barbarians, Scotch Highlanders, and fellahin came 
slowly, silently, steadily on ; Egyptian and Highlander, white 
faces and black faces, all marching under one discipline, 
all controlled by one brain. 

The zariba had been reported as very high, and to be 
three miles round the encampment. It was found that its 
height and its extent had been greatly overestimated. In- 
side it was defended by a stockade and a triple trench. At 
first the enemy did not show fight ; but after the bombs and 
shells of the Anglo-Egyptians began to tell, many seized 
their rifles and kept up an irregular fire on the Highlanders 
as they advanced, while a large body of cavalry was ob- 
served to be leaving the zariba. The bugles sounded, the 
pipes cheered on the Highlanders, and they advanced to the 
wall of thorns in splendid order, gravely and silently. " Pull 
it down!" cried a voice. The men fell upon it ; after a 
few hearty tugs a gap was made, and the soldiers poured 
through into the encampment. It was honeycombed with 
holes and pitfalls, over which with difficulty the soldiers 
made their way, for the trenches contained men who lay 
low till the step of the foe was almost upon them, when 
they sprang up and wounded him with a bullet or a sword- 
thrust. Dead camels, killed by shells, were found tethered 
in trenches. Sometimes a pit had been dug by some poor 
villager, large enough to hold himself and his donkey. 

The recreant cavalry were gone ; the poor black soldiers 
fled in flocks, but they fired, as they ran. The Egyptians 
had entered the zariba on the other side through a gap of 
their own making ; they even claimed to have been in 
before the Highlanders. Small mercy was shown by the 
Nubian tribesmen to those who for years had ravaged 
their country, destroyed their villages, and carried off their 
women. They were so eager for revenge, now that their 
enemies lay at their mercy, that, as Mr. Steevens says, 



326 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

"the blacks and their brigaded Egyptians would have 
slicked through and picked out the thorns after the ' cease 
fire ' ! " 

The hand-to-hand engagement lasted forty minutes ; no 
one concerned in it could have told whether it was two 
minutes or two years. It was over. Mahmud's army was 
annihilated, and he himself was a prisoner. He was found 
alone, sitting on his carpet with his arms lying beside him, 
like a defiant chief of old awaiting death. He was brought 
before the English general, who asked him : — 

"Are you the man Mahmud?" 

" Yes, I am Mahmud, and I am the same as you " 
(meaning commander-in-chief) . 

" Why did you come to make war here? " 

"Because I was told, the same as you." 

He was a full-blooded Arab. His Arab features were 
intelligent, but their expression was cruel. He seemed be- 
tween thirty and forty. He was dressed in loose drawers 
and a gibba, — the patched garment that the followers of 
the Mahdi still wore as a sign of poverty ; but those who 
had wealth embroidered it with gold. 

Every one admired him for looking at his fate so calmly 
and defiantly. 

The English loss had been great among the officers : 
the Egyptians and Soudanese also lost heavily ; though 
the total of the casualties, out of a force of about twelve 
thousand men, was only eighty-one killed and about five 
hundred wounded, but the army of Mahmud was erased 
from the face of the earth. The joy and pride of , the 
Egyptians, and especially of their officers, who had trained 
them from fellahin into admirable soldiers, were pathetic 
and extravagant. 

Osman Digna rode off" with the cavalry very early in the 
action. The black infantry enlisted for the Jehad or Holy 
War fought stubbornly in the trenches. Among the killed 
were many Emirs, including Bishara. There was not much 
pursuit. Those who escaped made their way into the desert 
and were lost there. 



ATBARA AND OMDURMAN 327 

G. W, Steevens tells a little anecdote of General Hunter 
which it gives me pleasure to repeat. He says : — 

"Lewis's never weary, never hungry, Egyptians had been 
bringing in the wounded, carrying them on stretchers across 
twelve black miles of desert, at something over a mile an hour. 
And General Hunter, who in the morning had been galloping 
bareheaded through the bullets, waving on the latest raised bat- 
talion of blacks, now chose to spend the night playing guide to 
the crawling convoy." 

The Sirdar, some days later, made a sort of triumphal 
procession into Berber. Hunter Pasha was at his side, and 
behind him rode a clanking escort of cavalry. Men, women, 
and children in the streets shrieked with delight. Well 
might they. They had tried both rules, and preferred the 
Anglo-Egyptian. In the procession, by himself, walked 
Mahmud, a prisoner. The sight of him made on the native 
population the deepest possible impression ; for only a year 
before, it was Mahmud the Great who had slaughtered their 
tribesmen, the Jaalin, at Metammeh. After this success the 
army rested four months. Many officers and correspon- 
dents obtained furloughs, among them G. W. Steevens, who 
seems to have put in his time making a visit to the scene 
of late military operations on the Indian frontier. He re- 
turned by way of the Nile to Wady Haifa, and thence by 
the Soudan military railroad, now completed to the Atbara. 
Here is what he says he saw on his arrival : — 

" The platform was black and brown, blue and white, with a 
great crowd of natives. For drawn up in line opposite the 
waiting tracks were rigid squads of black figures in the familiar 
brown jersey and blue putties, and on their tarbushes the badges 
green, black, red, yellow, blue, and white of each of the six 
Soudanese battahons. Some were from the banks of the White 
Nile, some from Darfur, some from the West, ■ — only the last 
time we had seen those particular blacks they were shooting at 
us. Every one had begun life as a Dervish, and had been taken 
prisoner at or after the Atbara. Now, not four months after, 
here they were, erect and soldierly, with at least the rudiments 
of shooting, on their way to fight their former masters, and 
very glad to do it. They knew when they were well off. Be- 



328 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

fore, they were slaves, half-clothed, half-fed, half-armed ; good 
to lose their women at Shendi, and to stay in the trenches of 
Nakheila when the Baggara ran away. Now they are free 
soldiers, well paid, well clothed, well fed, with weapons they 
can trust, and officers who charge ahead, and would rather 
die than leave them." 

It was the close of August, 1898, when the Anglo-Egyp- 
tian army began to advance up the White Nile, slowly ap- 
proaching Omdurman and Khartoum for a final struggle 
with the Khalifa. 

As they drew near the immediate vicinity of Omdur- 
man and the Dervishes, they found the villages deserted 
by their inhabitants. There were two mountain ridges that 
looked down upon the city, — the Kerreri Heights, upon 
one side, the Gebel Surgham on the other, — and between 
lay the plain, in which, according to the Khalifa's vision, a 
battle should be fought which would strew it with the bodies 
of the infidel. Alas for the Khalifa ! His men were 
brave, — none braver ever fought with sword and spear, — 
but he had little knowledge of artillery, and was unable to 
estimate the power of modern long-range guns. 

The plain was half sand and half pale yellow grass ; on 
the rim, by the Nile, rose the Mahdi's tomb, a yellow 
dome clear above everything. 

Without the walls of the city of Omdurman were thou- 
sands of mud houses, built to shelter the miscellaneous 
forces of the Khalifa, drawn from every part of his vast em- 
pire to meet the foe in one last struggle on this predestined 
spot. As the Anglo-Egyptian army mounted the ridge that 
commanded a view of the plain and the city, in front of it 
stretched the army of the Khalifa, with its banners along a 
three-mile front in one long line eight or ten men deep. 
The sun was setting on the evening of the last day of 
August. On September i, the battle was begun. 

About half-past six in the morning the first shell fired 
by the British startled the Dervish army into life. The line 
of flags swung forward ; the Dervishes in their white gibbas 
pressed forward too. They came straight and fast, then 



ATBARA AND OMDURMAN 329 

presently they came no farther. The Anglo- Egyptians 
formed one firmg line. 

No white troops would have faced that torrent of death 
for five minutes, but the Baggara and the Jehadia came 
on. The bullets hurled them down in whole companies. 
Line after line pressed forward, then dropped a white line 
of dead bodies on the ground. 

" Sometimes they came near enough to see single figures quite 
plainly. One old man with a white flag started with five com- 
rades ; all dropped, but he alone came bounding forward to 
within two hundred yards of the Fourteenth Soudanese. Then 
he folded his arms across his face, and his limbs loosened, and 
he dropped to earth beside his flag. It was the last day of 
Mahdism and the greatest. They could never get near, and 
they refused to hold back. By now the ground before us was 
all white with dead men's drapery." 

At last there were no more Dervishes coming on ; in that 
division of the Khalifa's army there were no more left to 
die. 

The Khalifa had divided his forces into three parts. 
The first, under Osman Azrak, was the one that we have 
just seen was utterly destroyed. Their general died with 
them. The second, with the Green Banner and Abdullahi's 
eldest son, the Sheik-ed-Din, moved toward Kerreri to 
envelop the Anglo- Egyptian right. The third, under the 
Khalifa himself and his brother Yakub, was hidden behind 
Gebel Surgham, with the Black Banner, ready as need 
might be to envelop the enemy's left wing, or to bar his 
road to Omdurman. 

Then came the one disaster of the fight. The Twenty- 
first Lancers, eager to be the first in Omdurman, galloped 
recklessly forward until they were only about two hundred 
yards from a waiting line of Dervishes under Wad Helu. 
Suddenly they saw a deep ravine yawning before them ; 
and out of the ravine sprang a cloud of black heads and 
swords " like brandished lightning." 

The horses were at full speed, and could not be suddenly 
checked. Down they went into the steep dry water-course. 



330 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

called a Khor. The story of this charge is heart-stirring, 
but I need not tell it here. Except for its deeds of brav- 
ery and self-devotion, when wounded men were borne out 
of the fight by their comrades, it was mere useless slaughter. 

The last struggle was between the Khalifa's division on 
Gebel Surgham, and the Soudanese and Egyptians, com- 
manded by Lewis Bey, Maxwell, and MacDonald. 

They were in presence of the great black standard, flap- 
ping in the air like the wings of some fierce raven. 

" Whatever we may think of Mahdi rule, of the desolation 
which it spread, of the hypocrisy, cunning, and cruelty of 
the Khalifa," the splendid valor, the unexampled fortitude 
and devotion, the unsurpassed resignation and courage, 
which " the Dervishes displayed on the field before Omdur- 
man, won for them universal sympathy and respect." It is 
true they could have expected little mercy from the " friend- 
lies," — the riverine tribes whom they had so cruelly mas- 
sacred and ruined. Their choice was to fall sword in hand, 
or to be ignominiously slain by those who had been incited 
to vengeance by their deeds of cruelty. As one of the war 
correspondents observed, " Such acts of bravery have never 
been known in history or romance." Right or wrong, the 
Dervishes believed sincerely they were fighting for their 
faith, and for the successor of the Prophet. 

"Think of two hundred Dervishes gathering round their 
black flag after the Khalifa and his brother had ridden 
away from the field, refusing to part with it, but courting death 
to save it, their last survivor bleeding from unnumbered wounds, 
shouting the name of Allah and hurling his spear. Then he 
stood motionless, still waiting. The bullet of a Soudanese took 
him full in the chest. He quivered, gave way at the knees, and 
dropped with his head upon his arms and his face toward the 
legions of his conquerors." 

Some wounded were killed that day, but it was unavoid- 
able. While lying apparently dead, the Baggara would 
spring up and make a last thrust at the nearest white officer. 
This happened not once, but a hundred times, all over the 
field. 



A TEAR A AND OMDURMAN 33 I 

The ofificial return was eleven thousand killed, sixteen 
thousand wounded, but how the number of wounded was 
arrived at, it is hard to say. 

The English and Egyptian losses together amounted to 
little more than five hundred, but among these were some 
very valuable lives. 

The attack on the zariba at Atbara was a fight ; that on 
Omdurman was a battle. 

" The battle of Omdurman was almost a miracle of suc- 
cess. But for that thanks are due first to the Khalifa, whose 
generalship throughout was a masterpiece of imbecility. . . . 
He chose the one form of fight which gave him no possi- 
bility of even a partial success. We heard he boasted that 
his men had always broken our squares, and he would see if 
they could not do it again. They would have broken us if 
valor could have done it, but he forgot that the squares 
were bigger than before and better armed," besides being 
under more experienced generals. 

Omdurman had been built by the Mahdi to be at once a 
citadel and an encampment. The city outside its walls was 
surrounded by a tangle of streets crowded with mud hovels. 
As the Sirdar, accompanied by his staff and General Hunter, 
rode in, he was followed by the English brigade and the 
guns of a battery. On their entrance there came forward an 
old man on a donkey holding a white flag. He had been 
sent by the inhabitants to surrender the city, and to ask if 
the conquerors were likely to kill them all, if they were let 
in without resistance. The Sirdar reassured him on that 
point. The old man's face beamed, as he heard the assur- 
ance that there would be no massacre. He communicated 
it to his fellow-townsmen, and interpreters were sent at once 
into every side street to proclaim amnesty to all who might 
surrender without further opposition. Then the army 
marched into Omdurman. " Omdurman was like a rabbit 
warren, — a threadless labyrinth of tiny huts or shelters too 
flimsy for the name of sheds. Oppression, stagnation, de- 
gradation, were stamped deep on every yard of miserable 
Omdurman." 



332 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Reassured as to their own safety, the people received 
their conquerors with shouts of welcome. The men had 
their gibbas turned inside out. " They had tried to kill the 
Anglo- Egyptians three hours before, now they salaamed and 
shouted, ' Peace be with you.' " We must remember that 
to them what had taken place was a change of masters. 
They had groaned for years under the cruelty of the Khalifa 
and his Baggara, who were to them as much foreigners as the 
Egyptians and the Englishmen who now ruled along their 
mighty river. Gaining confidence, they even held their 
hands out and begged for backsheesh. But these people 
were not Dervishes or Arabs ; they were miserable blacks 
who had been impressed into the bands raised in Kordofan 
and Equatoria. 

At last the army stood before the great wall of Om- 
durman, the Khalifa's citadel. The wall was strong, but 
it was indefensible. It had no banquette on the other 
side. 

Along the water-front the gunboats had been at work, and 
had shattered the defences. As the army advanced, they 
met crowds of men and women, most of them staggering 
beneath heavy baskets ; they were looting the stores of their 
late master. Everything was squalid, even in the apartments 
of the Khalifa in the citadel, except only some modern con- 
veniences arranged in his bathroom. As soon as the Kha- 
lifa's body-guard, who were in hiding, found they were not 
to be murdered if they surrendered, they came forth in 
swarms. They demurred a little at first about giving up 
their arms, but soon a great pile of them was collected and 
placed under guard. Slatin Pasha was nearly pulled off his 
horse by the welcome of old friends. The army marched to 
the mosque and to the Mahdi's tomb. As they halted 
before it, a sad accident occurred. The guns outside the 
wall had been ordered in a certain contingency to shell the 
tomb. They mistook the order, or rather the contingency. 
Four shells fell into the ranks of the exultant conquerors. 
One of these killed Hubert Howard, a young lawyer of an 
adventurous spirit who was there as a reporter for the 



ATBARA AND OMDURMAN 333 

^' Times." He was of the same family as the " gallant 
Howard," slain at Waterloo. 

It was growing dusk when the Sirdar went himself to the 
prison where Charles Neufeldt, who had been a captive 
thirteen years, and thirty other shackled prisoners were 
released. Neufeldt seemed nearly mad with delight and 
surprise. He talked and gesticulated with great animation. 
They placed him on a pony, for he could not walk, and 
about midnight Mr. Winston Churchill found him in the 
office of Colonel Wingate of the Intelligence Department. 
This is what he tells us that he saw there : — 

" On a native bed, his slumbers secured and protected by a 
sentry, lay the Sirdar in well-deserved repose. A few yards 
away Colonel Wingate was stretched on the ground, writing by 
an uncertain light, the telegram announcing the victory. In the 
background stood a strange figure, — a pale-faced man with a 
ragged red beard and whiskers, clad in a blue and white Der- 
vish gibba. He spoke continuously in a weak voice and indif- 
ferent English. A native sergeant was busy about his feet with 
a hammer. There was an occasional clink. The clink ex- 
plained matters. This was Charles Neufeldt, thirteen years the 
Khalifa's prisoner, having his fetters knocked off. There were 
two sets of leg irons. The smaller, with links about an inch 
each way, he had worn, so he said, since he was captured in 
1885. The larger — I could just lift the shackle with one hand 
— he had worn for a month only. Three enormous iron rings 
were about each ankle. They could break the coupling-chain, 
but the rings had to remain till the morning. He talked vol- 
ubly. The remark that seems most worthy of record was this : 
' I have forgotten how to walk.' " 

When the Sirdar and his army had entered the suburbs 
of Omdurman, they believed that the Khalifa was still in his 
citadel, but he had escaped. Mounting a donkey unarmed, 
and almost alone, he had left his stronghold by a back way, 
and hastened into the desert, where several swift camels 
were awaiting him. Not a soul that belonged to him be- 
trayed him. As soon as his escape was discovered, the 
Twenty-first Lancers on weary horses were sent after him, but 
he was beyond pursuit, and had joined the main body of 



334 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

his routed army, with which he crossed the Nile and made 
his way to El Obeid, formerly his chief stronghold in 
Kordofan. 

Three days later, September 4 (the anniversary of the 
foundation of the Third French Republic) , detachments of 
officers and men from every regiment, British and Egyptian, 
were taken across the river to Khartoum to attend Gordon's 
Memorial Funeral Service. The Union Jack and the Egyp- 
tian flag were hoisted ; " God save the Queen " and the 
Egyptian national anthem were played. Then four chap- 
lains — Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian, and Methodist — 
came slowly forward. The Presbyterian Minister read the 
Fifteenth Psalm, the Anglican Chaplain led the Lord's 
Prayer, the Catholic Pastor laid his helmet at his feet and 
read a memorial prayer bareheaded in the sun. The 
pipes wailed a dirge; Gordon's favorite hymn, "Abide with 
me," was played. All who were present were deeply 
affected. 

We know not where the bones of Gordon He, but his 
rank and ruined garden will now be evermore associated 
with his memory. 

In contrast with this was what we cannot but call in the 
language of French bulletins " a regrettable incident." 

The Mahdi's Tomb had been a conspicuous mark for 
shells. It had been built over the chamber in which he 
died. The place had for ten years been held most holy by 
the Dervishes, but by orders of the Sirdar it was levelled 
with the ground. The body of the Mahdi was dug up ; the 
limbs and trunk were thrown into the Nile. The head 
found its way to Cairo, whence Lord Cromer at once 
ordered it to be taken to Wady Haifa, where the head of 
King John of Abyssinia had been buried, and where that of 
Abdullah Ahmed now rests, not far from his birthplace. 

The Mahdi was a very different man from the Khalifa. 
The only humane actions that we read of in connection 
with Mahdism emanated from himself. . Father Ohrwalder 
speaks of his unruffled smile, pleasant manners, and equa- 
ble temperament. When Christian priests were in danger 



ATBARA AND OMDURMAiY 335 

from his soldiers, he ordered them to walk before his camel 
for protection. When he heard of the sad death of Ohvier 
Pain/ in the desert, " he took it to heart," says Slatin, 
"and read prayers for the dead." To many of his prison- 
ers he showed kindness, gave them food from his table, or 
sometimes employment, or a little money. 

The desecration of his tomb excited a good deal of feel- 
ing in England. But there were political reasons for its 
destruction, and for the removal of the Mahdi's body. The 
tomb and the "Prophet's" remains might have formed a 
rallying point for all the remains of Mahdism, and would 
almost certainly have become a place of pilgrimage. 

It can matter nothing to Abdullah Ahmed now whether 
his bones lie under the waters of the Nile or under the 
sands of the Soudan. The regret we feel is that civilized 
and Christian men should have felt themselves compelled 
by policy to do a deed which we can hardly think Charles 
Gordon would have approved, especially when taken in 
connection with the honor which a few hours before had 
been paid to his own memory. 

1 " Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 103, 104. 



CHAPTER IV 

FASHODA-. END OF THE KHALIFA 

nPHE Fashoda incident, insignificant as it was, might 
-"■ easily have convulsed Europe, and has left a root of bit- 
terness in the French mind. Mr. Winston Spencer Church- 
ill says : — 

"It is unlikely that the world will ever learn the details of the 
subtle scheme of which the Marchand Mission was a famous 
part. We may say with certainty that the French Government 
did not intend a small expedition, at great peril to themselves, 
to seize and hold an obscure swamp on the Upper Nile. But 
it is not possible to define the other arrangements. What part 
the Abyssinians were expected to play, what services had been 
rendered them, and what inducements they were offered, is 
veiled in the mystery of intrigue." ^ 

The scheme, whatever it may have been, is thought to 
have originated with President Faure. Whether Prince 
Henri of Orleans, who made an expedition to Abyssinia, 
ostensibly as the correspondent of a newspaper, had any- 
thing to do with it, has never been understood ; but 
undoubtedly' France had for some time courted the favor 
of Abyssinia, and the weapons by which the Italians were 
defeated at Adowa had been mainly supplied through French 
channels. 

The few known facts of the Fashoda incident are briefly, 
as follows : — 

Toward the end of 1896 a small French expedition, 
consisting of eight French officers and non-commissioned 
officers, in command of one hundred and twenty black 

^ "The River War." W. S. Churchill. 



FA SHOD A. END OF THE KHALIFA 337 

soldiers from Senegal, reached the upper waters of the 
Nile. It had started from the west coast of Africa two 
years before ; and although its destination was secret, 
enough was discerned by the E^nglish Government to 
cause it to give timely warning to the French Cabinet, that 
any interference with the former equatorial provinces of 
Egypt on the Nile would be considered an unfriendly act 
by Great Britain. At the time of this first warning the 
English Government was planning the Dongola campaign 
and an advance to Khartoum, but had not completed its 
preparations. It had sent, however, early in 1897 an 
English expedition to Uganda under Colonel MacDonald. 
This expedition landed at Mombassa and made its way into 
the interior. But misfortunes befell it. The Soudanese 
troops in Uganda, which were to hav^ joined the principal 
force, mutinied ; their English officers had to fight for their 
lives, and every plan formed for the co-operation of this 
force with the army destined for Khartoum was frustrated. 

Five days after the battle of Omdurman, September 7, 
1S98, a small Dervish steamer, one of those that had 
formerly belonged to General Gordon, came slowly down 
the Nile; and as it approached the British encampment 
and gunboats, its crew perceived what had taken place, 
and surrendered. They had gone up the White Nile a 
month earlier, in company with another steamer, to collect 
grain for the Khalifa; but as they approached Fashoda, 
they had unexpectedly been fired on by black soldiers com- 
manded by white officers, under a flag that they had never 
seen before. Repulsed and bewildered, they had retired 
down stream, the Emir in command had disembarked his 
troops, and sent his smaller steamer back to Omdurman to 
report what had taken place and to receive orders. 

The Arab crew of the little steamer could give no intel- 
ligible account of the flag they had seen at Fashoda, but 
the bullets that the English officers extracted from the 
woodwork of the steamer with their pocket knives were 
French bullets of a recent pattern. Had they been fired 
by some Belgians from the Congo, or by an Itahan expedi- 



338 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

tion, or had a force of English come down the Nile from 
Uganda or Unyoro ? 

All that the Army of the Nile could do was to wait and 
see. For this purpose the Sirdar went himself up the Nile 
with five steamers and a considerable force. In three days 
they found the Dervish Emir in a camp defended by his 
little steamer. The steamer was blown up and the Emir's 
troops dispersed. The expedition then proceeded. The 
landscape upon either bank became mere swamp, in which 
Father Nile wasted his waters. Its vegetation was coarse 
grass and tangled jungle. After ten days, on September i8, 
they approached Fashoda, and the Sirdar sent a message 
to the mysterious Europeans. A reply was at once returned 
by Major Marchand, saying that he was in command of 
a party of French troops sent to take possession of the 
Equatorial Soudan. It also politely congratulated the 
Sirdar on his recent victories, and welcomed him to 
Fashoda in the name of France. 

This little force, stranded on a malarious swamp, where in 
Emir Pasha's time there had been government buildings and 
a government station, had expended nearly all its ammu- 
nition, was cut off from communication with the civilized 
world, and apparently was without any road of retreat. The 
French were surprised to see the English, and very much 
relieved, for confused rumors, brought by the natives, had 
led them to expect an attack in force from the Dervishes. 

Their march across the Deserts of Central Africa had 
been a wonderful achievement. They had been for two 
years making their way to the Nile, and for six months, as 
Mr. Churchill says, " they had been absolutely lost from 
human ken." 

"They had fought with savages; they had struggled with 
fever ; they had climbed mountains, and pierced the most 
gloomy forests. Five days and five nights they had stood up 
to their necks in swamp and water. A fifth of their number 
had perished, yet at last they had carried out their mission, and, 
arriving at Fashoda on the loth of July, had planted their tri- 
color on the Upper Nile." 



FASHODA. END OF THE KHALIFA 339 

Their reception of the Englishmen was not only friendly 
but cordial. The Sirdar, without interfering with the 
French flag, or with the ruined fort from which it floated, 
hoisted British and Egyptian colors with all ceremony on 
another part of the old government fortifications, and leav- 
ing a body of Soudanese soldiers and six guns to garrison 
the place, under Colonel Jackson, he went back with the 
rest of his force to Omdurman. 

The news that eight BVenchmen occupied Fashoda, and 
claimed a territory twice as large as France, reached Eng- 
land when the public were jubilant over the battle of Omdur- 
man. Was a friendly Power to slip in unawares and rob 
England of the best fruits of her victory? 

For some weeks there was very angry feeling in Europe 
on both sides ; but the position of Major Marchand at 
Fashoda was so manifestly untenable that at last the French 
Government gave way. Diplomacy settled the dispute by 
assenting to an extension of the French sphere of influence 
in Western and Central Africa; but French irritation on 
the subject of Fashoda has to this day been kept alive. 

While waiting for instructions from France, the brave 
little French garrison suffered much from fever. The 
officers kept up friendly relations with Colonel Jackson, 
between whom and Major Marchand a real friendship 
sprang up ; but notwithstanding their polite social relations 
each party kept a strict watch upon the other. 

In the middle of October, despatches via Cairo, ad- 
dressed to Major Marchand, reached the Sirdar, who for- 
warded them forthwith to Fashoda. The major at once 
decided to go to Cairo and place himself in telegraphic 
communication with his own government. He left his fol- 
lowers under Captain Germain, his second in command, 
with strict orders to maintain friendly relations with the 
English garrison. Germain, however, was wanting in the 
self-control and prudence of his superior officer. He 
sent reconnoitring parties into the interior, and got into 
quarrels with the natives, pushing his troops beyond the 
limits which the Sirdar had prescribed, and which Mar- 



340 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

chand had agreed to recognize. An angry altercation was 
the result. Men's tempers were worn by heat, fever, and 
monotony. But collision was averted by the patience 
and prudence of Colonel Jackson, who confined his men to 
their own lines, and kept them ready for any eventuality. 

At length Major Marchand returned, reproved his too- 
zealous subordinate, and expressed his regrets to Colonel 
Jackson. He brought news that his government had or- 
dered the evacuation of Fashoda. The French, when ready 
for departure, lowered their flag on the fort, the English 
officers keeping out of sight during the distressing cere- 
mony. When the tricolor came down, one of the French- 
men (a non-commissioned officer) rushed up to the 
flagstaff and hurled it to the ground, shaking his fists 
and tearing his hair in bitter vexation. 

" Nor," says Mr. Churchill, "is it possible to withhold sym- 
pathy, in view of what these men had suffered, and what they 
thought they had gained." 

The French garrison then made a safe, though tedious, 
journey through Abyssinia to Obok, a French colony upon 
the Indian Ocean, whence they returned to France. Their 
commander, however, went home by a more speedy route. 
Landing in England, he was received by Lord Kitchener 
with the most cordial acknowledgments of his admirable 
conduct through the whole affair. 

In Paris he was welcomed with wild enthusiasm. It was, 
however, at the time of the Dreyfus trial, and excitement 
ran so high against the English and the home government 
of France, that it was deemed advisable he should withdraw 
himself as much as' possible from public view. This, with 
true patriotic feeling, he was quite willing to do. Repeat- 
edly Lord Kitchener, on his return to England, spoke of 
him in public with respect, and even with enthusiasm. 

In the summer of 1900, he was ordered to join the French 
force in China ; and the Nationalist party in Paris, not yet 
despairing of converting him into a Boulanger, gave him an 



FASHODA. END OF THE KHALIFA 34 1 

enthusiastic demonstration at the railway station, on his 
departure. 

When Omdurman had been taken, and the Khahfa, with 
the remnant of his troops, was in full retreat to El Obeid, 
in Kordofan, the Sirdar turned his attention to ridding the 
country, east and west of the Nile, of the bands of Dervishes 
which still remained there. There was a large force under 
Ahmed Fedil, a cousin of the Khalifa, who had pressed men 
into his ranks from all the country round Suakim. Osman 
Digna had at one time been with them, but had been ordered 
to Metammeh to strengthen the force of Mahmud, defeated 
at Atbara. He had thence made good his escape with the 
Baggara, and at the opening of the year 1900 was at El 
Obeid with the Khalifa. 

Kassala, while still Italian, had been relieved, or rather 
taken from the Dervishes who had got possession of it. 
This had been accomplished by Colonel Parsons, with a 
force of invalids and irregulars (Soudanese and Arabs), and 
the place was made over to the Anglo-Egyptian govern- 
ment. Learning what had happened at Omdurman, and 
knowing that Ahmed Fedil was on the upper waters of the 
Atbara with a large force. Colonel Parsons conceived the 
idea of taking by surprise the strong town of Gedaref, and 
cutting off the force under Ahmed Fedil, if it attempted 
to cross the Nile and join the fugitive Khalifa. 

Colonel Parsons' expedition against Gedaref was one of 
the most brilliant actions in the war. Mr. Churchill gives 
fifteen pages to it, but here we cannot spare it as many 
lines. Ahmed was forced to leave Gedaref in the hands 
of the enemy, but came back, and in turn besieged Colonel 
Parsons. He was in the end obliged to retreat, and Colonel 
Parsons, together with Lewis Bey, who had joined him with 
reinforcements, pursued him and his army to the banks of 
the Blue Nile, where they were endeavoring to cross at a 
place called Rosares. The Dervishes lost many men in a 
battle at this spot, but succeeded at last at Dakheila, a place 
above the Rosares Cataract, in crossing the river. Thence 
they hurried on to the White Nile, raiding as they went. 



342 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

They crossed the White Nile into Kordofan, entering it 
in the country of the Baggara. 

In this part of Kordofan the KhaUfa Abdullahi had been 
born and bred. Here, among his own people, he took 
refuge. At the tomb of his father he knelt long and 
prayed. Then he assured his followers that the prophecy 
of the Mahdi, whom he had seen in a vision, had been ful- 
filled. The plain around Omdurman had been indeed 
strewn with bodies of the unfaithful, but the unfaithful had 
been Dervishes not whole-hearted in his cause. Success 
was to attend those who were left alive. 

He had large stores of grain, treasure, and ammunition 
laid up in El Obeid ; with these he proceeded to reorganize 
his army. The Sirdar followed him, but found his position 
too strong to make success certain. He therefore recrossed 
a waterless desert, and for a time gave up the attempt to 
strike a final blow at the Khalifa. 

On the 24th of November, 1899, more than fourteen 
months after the battle of Omdurman, Colonel Wingate, best 
known as head of the Intelligence Department in Egypt, 
but Governor of Khartoum, and in command of a force in 
pursuit of the fugitive, learned from his scouts that Abdul- 
lahi was but a short distance from him. Advancing in the 
night, he occupied a range of hills which by daylight com- 
manded a view of the encampment of the Dervishes. A 
fierce little fight ensued. Colonel Wingate made a sudden 
advance all along his line, sweeping the enemy through 
their encampment. The Khalifa, when he saw what must 
be the result of the engagement, did not stir from his camp ; 
he sat there awaiting death, with his brothers and his prin- 
cipal Emirs around him. They were all found dead in one 
group, their horses lying dead behind them. The black 
body-guard of the Khalifa was also found dead, lying 
prone upon the ground, their faces toward the enemy in a 
straight line, about ten yards before their master's body. 
Thtf Dervishes, when they knew that their leader was dead, 
accepted quarter and surrendered. With the Khalifa died, 
among other Emirs, Ali Wad Halu and Ahmed Fedil. 



FASHODA. END OF THE KHALIFA 343 

About six thousand women and children were found in the 
camp, and about four thousand fighting men were taken 
prisoners. Such was the end of Mahdism. In March was 
signed an agreement between France and England, settling 
the Fashoda affair, though to this day the people and army 
of France feel bitterness at the thought that French officers 
were compelled to lower the French flag, set up on a ruined 
fort in a swamp, far from civilization. 

A line of separation was drawn between French and 
English " spheres of influence ; " all to the west was the 
French sphere, all to the east was the British, or rather 
Anglo-Egyptian. 

" A sphere of influence " means a tract of country which 
may be conquered, governed, or otherwise disposed of, by 
some civilized country which has previously obtained from 
other powers an acknowledgment of it as its " sphere of 
influence." Thus in the French " sphere of influence " was 
included, by the agreement of March, 1897, the Hinterland 
of Algeria, including the great Mussulman Empire of Wadai, 
with Bagismi, Kanem, and the north and east shores of 
Lake Tchad, which had for some years been in dispute 
between England and France. France also claimed terri- 
tory south of Tripoli, which gave her the command of 
important caravan routes into the interior, and may here- 
after prove a cause of quarrel with Italy. On the south 
the French *' sphere " touches the Congo Free State. 
France has the right to navigate rivers that flow through 
the valley of the Bahr-el-Ghazal and empty into the Nile, 
which river she may use as a highway to the sea, in common 
with Belgium, Germany, and Italy. In return she acknowl- 
edged the Anglo-Egyptian claim de facto, if not de jure, to 
all the valley of the Nile. A frightful war was thus averted 
by the diplomatic skill and prudence of Lord Salisbury 
and M. Delcass^, each of whom incurred censure for 
having sacrificed the just pretensions of his country to 
the interests of peace. 



CHAPTER V 

THE TRANSVAAL. PRESIDENT KRUGER 

T OOKING over the chapters that in 1894 I wrote con- 
^-^ cerning South Africa in my " Europe in Africa in the 
Nineteenth Century," I am incHned to agree with a gentle- 
man whose opinion is of weight in poHtical and literary 
circles, that they present a good summary of South African 
history up to the time when they were written ; but events 
have gone rapidly ahead since then in that part of the world, 
and names that were quite unknown to us in 1894 are now 
as familiar as household words. 

When my summary of South African history ended, in 
1894, the Orange Free State was enjoying peace and pros- 
perity. The Transvaal, or South African Republic, was re- 
sisting the invasion of modern progress, and at the same 
time reaping great pecuniary advantage from the influx of 
Uitlanders.^ I do not think that the word Uitlander was 
mentioned in my pages. 

In 1877, the Transvaal Republic, which had squatted 
upon territory within the I'^nglish sphere of influence, and 
had never been interfered with, was threatened by the 
savage tribes upon its borders. It had no money ; it had 
practically no government, for the authority of President 
Burgers was set at nought by half its citizens. It sought 
British protection. 

Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who conducted the negotiation, 
was deeply impressed by the hopelessness of the situation, 
for the Zulus were on the point of ravaging a large well- 

^ Probably my readers, like myself, may have been puzzled as to 
the pronunciation of this word. By many persons it is pronounced 
Weatlander; but according to the rules of Dutch pronunciation, it 
should be pronounced like Oitlander. 



1 




DR. JAMESON. 



THE TRANSVAAL 345 

settled district in the Republic. Sir Theophilus may be 
thought to have been " too previous " in accepting the 
Boers' offer of annexation ; for, had he held out longer, the 
whole country, impressed with its peril, would have acknowl- 
edged the imperative necessity of a step which alone 
could save the Dutch farmers from utter ruin, — perhaps 
from frightful massacre. As it was, three thousand of these 
burghers signed a petition praying to be incorporated into 
British South Africa. The English Government too hastily 
assumed responsibilities that seemed to be thrust upon it in 
the name of humanity. Burgers, the Boer President, in a 
speech to the Raad a few weeks before the annexation, told 
his people that they had " lost faith in God, reliance on 
themselves, and trust in each other " — that to take up arms 
and light the savages would be their ruin, that their duty 
was to come to an arrangement with the British Government, 
and to do so in a bold and manly manner. 

Annexation was proclaimed on April 12, 1877, and met 
with peaceful acquiescence. Even the Boer leaders, the 
" irreconcilables," took office under the new government, 
with the exception of General Joubert, who refused to ac- 
knowledge himself a British subject, but Paul Kruger took 
pay as a British official. President Burgers, who had cast 
all his private fortune into the public treasury, retired to 
Cape Colony, and died there. 

The annexation of the Transvaal cost England ^6,000,000, 
including the cost of the war with Secocoeni, the Kaffir 
chief, who was threatening to pour his forces over the 
Transvaal border. The Republic owed ^250,000 ; it had 
twelve shillings and six pence in its treasury. The Republic 
h id no immediate means of meeting its debts, as the country 
burghers refused to pay their taxes. The whole country 
was paralyzed. 

By 1879 it was relieved from debt, and peace and order 
were restored. But no sooner were the burghers freed from 
apprehension, no sooner were their farms safe from savages, 
and their land from bankruptcy, than their old race hatred 
of the English returned. The children of the trekkers had 



346 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

been brought up in that tradition. It was patriotism to be- 
lieve the British would oppress them. The editor of a 
Boer patriotic newspaper, reproaching his people for their 
change of views, reminded them that " a few months ago 
we said we would prefer confederation under the British 
flag, if the state of things then threatening was to continue. 
We know that a good and stable government is better than 
anarchy any day." 

Unfortunately, Sir Theophilus Shepstone was succeeded 
by Colonel Sir Owen Lanyon, a man severe and arbitrary. 
The Transvaal required a firm hand, but gentle treatment. 

Until the power of the surrounding tribes had been broken 
and some sort of stability that seemed permanent had been 
restored, the Transvaal had hardly existed as a state. Its 
history subsequent to annexation may be said to be the per- 
sonal history of its President. This being the case, and as in 
my series of Nineteenth-Century histories I have been al- 
ways glad of an opportunity to introduce biography, I will 
offer some account of President Kruger, availing myself 
largely of an article in "McClure's Magazine" for June, 1900, 
by Mr. F. Edmund Garrett, a well-known South African 
editor. 

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger was born a British 
subject in Cape Colony in 1825. His grandfather, a Ger- 
man, was sent out by the Dutch East India Company to 
cultivate cabbages and to supply its ships with sauerkraut 
when they touched at the Cape on their way to the East 
Indies. He was an Uitlander, and as such was coldly re- 
ceived by the Dutch settlers of pure blood in Cape Colony. 
He married, however, a woman of their race, and by marriage 
and association he and his sons became completely naturalized. 
The father of Paul Kruger raised cattle on a farm on the 
frontier of the Colony. When the great Trek took place in 
1837, he was not in one of the first companies; but after- 
wards he, and the companions with whom he travelled, had 
again and again to fight for their lives. They saved them- 
selves only by putting up laagers. On one occasion they 
were attacked by five thousand Matabele warriors, and in 



PRESIDENT KRUGER 347 

the fight that followed, Paul Kruger, still only a boy, took 
a man's part. 

" In a square made by lashing some fifty wagons end to end, as 
many farmers with their wives and families waited the attack. 
The Boer wagons, in which the families lived and carried all they 
had, were massively built, and each was covered with a great 
tilt. There was good shelter in the square against assegais, 
which, though hurled in clouds, could only fall in the middle, 
and the interstices were well strengthened against the charge 
of naked men, by bunches of the throny mimosa. The Boer 
men and boys manned the wagons and fired, not as soldiers 
fire, but as hunters. The women, close behind, kept reloading 
their guns. Again and again the enveloping mass of black war- 
riors flung itself on the laager, only to be choked off by its own 
dead. 

" The Boer marksmanship had been learned in a good, be- 
cause a hard school. Ammunition had been precious in Cape 
Colony. Young Kruger, for instance, was accustomed to herd 
his father's sheep in a land of wild beasts, and had always been 
expected to bring home game in proportion to the powder he had 
burned. After terrible loss, the Matabele warriors drew off, and 
the farmers, who declare that they lost in the laager but two men, 
sang psalms of thanksgiving, as well they might." 

In other engagements during the next two years, Paul 
Kruger took his part, and assisted in driving the Matabele 
out of the Transvaal into the country which is now known 
by their name. 

The God of the Transvaal settlers was the God of Battles. 
One wonders sometimes if the great silver-clasped Bibles 
that we read of in their houses contain any New Testament, 
or whether between their covers they hold only the Old 
Testament and the Apocrypha. Certainly the Boers treated 
the savages in the spirit which animated the children of 
Israel in their dealings with the idolaters they found in 
Canaan. We know that daily, rising early, Mr. Kruger reads 
a chapter in his Bible. Can he ever have opened on 
that verse which, describing the good man, says : " He 
sweareth to his neighbor and disappointeth him not, though 
it were to his own hindrance?" 



348 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Here is an anecdote told of him by Mr, Fitzpatrick, re- 
ferring to days when he contended with savages, and not 
with civilized men. 

" Once when out hunting on foot — a young man then — Mr. 
Kruger, after climbing to the top of a kopje, found that he had 
been seen by a number of hostile natives who were then run- 
ning towards him, some to climb the hill, others branching 
out to surround it. He knew that those on the flat could cut 
him off before he could descend, and that his only chance lay 
in 'bluff.' Stepping to the outermost ledge, in full view of 
the enemy, he calmly laid down his rifle, drew off first one and 
then the other of his velschoens (home-made hide shoes), and 
after quietly knocking the sand out of them, drew them on again. 
By this time the natives had stopped to observe him. He then 
picked up his rifle again, and, turning to an imaginary force be- 
hind the kopje, waved to the right, then to the left, as though 
directing them to charge round each end of the hill. The next 
instant the Kaffirs were in full retreat." 

Could Minerva have inspired " wily Ulysses " with any- 
thing more admirable? 

At sixteen Paul Kruger was a field cornet, and not many 
years after he was made a Commandant, or General. 

The Boers who had made part of the great Trek, and had 
settled first in Natal, and then beyond the Vaal, looked on 
those who came after them as Uitlanders, and did their 
best to exclude them from any share in the government. 
This led to disputes, and to the establishment of four 
Republics, each with its President, though they elected 
members to one Volksraad. These Republics were Ly- 
denburg, Zoutpansberg, Potchefstroom, and Utrecht, and 
they raised a flag of four colors, which is still the flag of 
the Transvaal. The Republic of Potchefstroom was the 
original Repubhc. Its President was Pretorius, and Paul 
Kruger, then thirty years of age, was second in command 
of its forces. With President Pretorius, he planned to 
annex Orange Free State to the Potchefstroom Republic, 
and Kruger made a raid into its territory. He crossed the 
Vaal, and marched toward Bloemfontein. The expedition. 



PRESIDENT KRUGER 349 

as it waited on the borders of a river, was attacked by the 
citizens of one of the rival repubUcs. Peace was made, 
and Free Staters who had joined the raid were, by the 
intercession of Paul Kruger, let off with fines. The story 
of the Jameson Raid seems not unlike this incident, with 
the parts of the actors reversed. 

At one time Paul Kruger fled for his life into the Orange 
Free State. " For ten years the Transvaal was an adminis- 
trative chaos, with revolts, arrests, rescues, and rampant 
factions." 

Pretorius was made President of the Transvaal, that is, 
of the united republics, when they at last consented to 
federation; but he lost his position in i860. Kruger was 
ambitious to succeed him ; but his party was not in the 
ascendant, and the burghers made another choice. A 
Dutch pastor, T. F. Burgers, accused of heresy by the Cape 
Colony synod, had found an asylum in the Transvaal. He 
was elected President, though both Kruger and Joubert 
seemed to have stronger claims. Burgers was a man of 
education, and of views far more progressive than those 
of Kruger, who was head of the Dopper party, that is, of 
the religionists who abhorred progressive ideas and modern 
improvements. Burgers desired to promote railroads and 
education. He courted immigration, and endeavored to 
bring about national solvency. In vain ! His people luould 
not pay their taxes, and his enemy Kruger thwarted him at 
every turn. 

Not only did the Boer farmers decline to support their 
government financially, but at length, in the outbreak of 
a long war with the Kaffir chief Secocoeni, they refused to 
fight, and their unhappy President implored some of them 
to shoot him, after an affair which he thought had covered 
him and his people with disgrace. 

In 1877, there seemed to half the population of the 
Transvaal no hope but to implore protection from the 
strong arm of England, which had taken no part in their 
internal affairs. 

Above all things Kruger, with his following of back- 



350 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

country farmers, desired to get rid of Burgers and his 
progressiv^e party. 

Four years after the annexation in 1877, by which time 
the Transvaal Boers had reaped all the benefits for which 
they had bartered what they now call their " indepen- 
dence," they repented of their bargain. We remember 
the lines by Andrew Marvell, so amusingly quoted by George 
Canning in a solemn diplomatic despatch — 

" In matters of bargain the fault of the Dutch 
Is giving too little and asking too much." 

This seems to have been exemplified in the conduct of 
their descendants in South Africa. 

In 1 88 1, England made over the Transvaal by deed of 
gift to its inhabitants ; but in consideration of the lives lost 
and the expense incurred in the defence of its people, and 
their rescue from financial difficulty, the English Govern- 
ment made some conditions. The Queen was to be 
acknowledged suzerain of the Transvaal State ; and an 
English resident was to live in Pretoria. He was to 
have no power to interfere in internal affairs, any more 
than if he were a consul or an ambassador, but all foreign 
relations, whether with surrounding tribes, or with civilized 
nations, were to be in his hands. All white men were to 
have equal rights with the burghers, and to pay equal 
taxes. There was to be no slavery in the Transvaal ; the 
blacks were to be well treated. The boundaries of the 
State should be laid down by commissioners, and no trek 
or invasion beyond these boundaries should be permitted. 
There also were some other clauses of less importance in 
the Convention. 

" Meantime, with the revival of trade and the removal of 
responsibilities and burdens, came time to think and talk. 
Agitators of the malcontent party, headed by Mr. Kruger, 
stirred up the country. Kruger had his private grudge against 
the English Government, for, as one of its officials, he had been 
repeatedly refused an increase of salary. ' A striking in- 
stance,' says a recent writer, ' of the possible expensiveness of 
a small economy.' " 



PRESIDENT KRUGER 351 

Moreover, there was a general impression throughout the 
Transvaal that England would annul the Convention, and 
deliver the country over to the party of malcontents. Sir 
Michael Hicks-Beach wrote home in April, 1879, "The 
idea that we shall somehow be compelled, or induced, to 
abandon the country has taken great hold on the minds of 
the more intelligent men in the Transvaal. . . . But there is 
great practical difficulty in conveying to the minds of this 
people any idea of the real power of the government." 

Anti-annexation delegates were sent to England toward 
the end of 1883, for the purpose of conferring on the Con- 
vention of 1 88 1, and obtaining relief from some of its 
conditions. The mission was composed of three men, the 
principal of whom was Paul Kruger. At once they were 
told that their request for independent sovereignty must be 
absolutely refused, that is, that the right of the Queen to 
veto their foreign treaties must be maintained ; but modi- 
fications were granted in regard to minor points named in 
the convention ; for example, an English resident to super- 
intend the foreign relations of the Boer Government was no 
longer to reside in Pretoria, and the Transvaal was to be 
officially recognized as the South African Republic. 

A second convention, modifying that of 188 1, was signed 
in London, February 27, 1884. 

As an outcome of this negotiation Mr. Kruger, then 
resident in London in a fashionable hotel, published in the 
London newspapers a cordial invitation to all Englishmen 
who cared to settle in the Transvaal, promising them 
welcome, protection, and equal rights with the Dutch 
inhabitants. 

Mr. Fitzpatrick, speaking of this visit to London, says : 

" There occurred an incident which provides the answer to 
Mr. Kruger's oft — too oft — repeated remark that 'the Uit- 
landers were never asked to settle in the Transvaal, and are 
not wanted there.' Messrs. Kruger and Smit were staying at 
the Albemarle Hotel, where they found themselves, after some 
weeks' delay, in the uncomfortable position of being unable to 
pay their hotel bill. In their extremity, they applied to one 



352 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Baron Grant, at that time a bright particular star in the Stock 
Exchange firmament. Baron Grant was largely interested in 
the gold concessions of Lydenburg, so he was willing to 
assist, but on terms. And the q7iid pro quo which he asked 
was some public assurance of good will, protection, and encour- 
agement to British settlers in the Transvaal. Mr. Kruger 
responded, on behalf of the Republic, by publishing in the 
London press the cordial invitation and welcome, and promise 
of rights and protection to all who would come, so frequently 
quoted against him of late." 

He also visited Holland and Germany, and invited 
immigration. 

In 1 88 1, the Transvaal had been governed by a trium- 
virate, three men of different views and mutual jealousies, 
Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius. But Kruger's was the 
dominant authority. In 1883, he was elected the first 
President of the South African Republic, and he has 
since been re-elected three times, five years being the 
Presidential term. 

His election in 1883, when he was opposed by Joubert, 
was fraudulently managed. Joubert, who was really the 
choice of the Volksraad, whose twenty-six members could 
alone vote for President, lost heart. He and his party 
were bitterly disappointed, but remembering that once 
before in the history of the Transvaal similar tamper- 
ing with the electoral vote had led to civil war, Joubert, 
two years later, said, speaking of the matter, " It was a 
wrong, an unrighteousness, but I could not commit an- 
other wrong and unrighteousness on my part, by shedding 
blood." 

Mr. Kruger at this crisis not only tampered with the 
electoral vote for President, but with the vote of the burghers 
of the first class, who elected the Volksraad ; so that he 
packed that body with men who would vote for whatever 
might please him. He also forced a judge on the Supreme 
Bench, in opposition to a general protest from members of 
the bar. 

However justly in late years Mr. Kruger has condemned 



PRESIDENT KRUGER 353 

the filibustering expedition of Dr. Jameson into his bor- 
ders, he had no scruple earlier in his term of office in 
encouraging similar raids into lands that lay within the 
British sphere of influence, whose boundaries had been 
laid down by the Convention. In defiance of the stipula- 
tion that trade and commerce should be freely carried on 
between the South African Republic and Cape Colony, he 
at one time closed the fords by which alone the Vaal River 
could be crossed, in order to stop all commerce with the 
British Colony, and oblige all trade with the Transvaal to 
pass over Portuguese territory, in order to build up the 
profits of a new railroad in which he was pecuniarily 
interested. 

Unfortunately, after annexation, under the administration 
of Sir Theophilus Shepstone's successor, the British Govern- 
ment had given the Boers some cause to lay up grievances. 
Sir Bartle Frere wrote to his wife from Pretoria in April, 
1879 : "It is clear to me that it is not so much the an- 
nexation, as neglect to fulfil the promises and expectations 
held out by Shepstone when he took over the government, 
that has stirred up the great mass of Boers, and given a 
handle to agitators." 

Sir Theophilus Shepstone had been looked upon by the 
Boers as their friend. He was welcomed by thousands 
when, as the representative of Great Britain, he entered 
Pretoria, but agitation was carried on unceasingly between 
the factions. One was for "independence," the other 
favored annexation ; one was for an advance on the lines 
of modern progress, the other was for isolation, for stiff- 
necked adherence to old-fashioned ideas, and a misinter- 
pretation of the Old Testament system, which directed the 
Chosen People to come out, and to be separate from other 
nationalities. 

After the Convention of 1884, the objects kept to the 
fore by the party of agitation somewhat changed. Com- 
plete independence — the independence of a sovereign 
State, and abrogation of the Queen's suzerainty — was the 
war cry, though apparently there had been no exercise of 

23 



354 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

her rights as the RepubUc's suzerain. The Boers say that 
the word suzerainty did not appear in the Convention of 
1884. But it was a perfectly well understood thing, both 
by the delegates and their people, that its abrogation had 
been absolutely and peremptorily refused at the first meet- 
ing held by the delegates with members of the English 
Government. 

In 1886, there was so much dissatisfaction in the Repub- 
lic that the farmers again refused to pay their taxes, and 
there seemed danger that the Transvaal might relapse into 
bankruptcy ; when suddenly a way was found by which 
not only might the taxes be paid by other people, but every 
burgher would find himself possessed of money, at the 
price of admitting outsiders with modern ideas of money- 
making into the Republic. Thereupon Mr. Kruger applied 
himself to the problem, how could these outsiders — Uit- 
landers, as they were called — be kept under a yoke, and 
debarred from all participation in the government, while 
they provided the burghers with the blessings of wealth 
and prosperity? 

" The Boer wanted revenue, personal aid from the state, 
large salaries and pickings for the most favored class, and 
arms of the latest pattern. The question was how to give 
the Uitlander free play enough to get these desirable things out 
of his exertions, while yet keeping all governing power in Boer 
hands." 

Speaking of the monopoly of power by the Boer farmers, 
" Its loss," said Mr. Kruger, " would be worse than annexa- 
tion." In vain Sir Alfred Milner urged him to adopt 
reforms. 

In the election of 1893, it was proved that in politics Boers 
" not faithful to the country," in other words not faith- 
ful to Dopper rule, not followers of Mr. Kruger or in 
sympathy with his policy, — counted for nothing. 

" The land and the people for whom Paul Kruger had worked 
and hved, mean really a few thousand families of Franco-Dutch 



PRESIDENT KRUGER 355 

extraction, speaking a Ti\x'ic\\. patois, all cattle-keepers or offi- 
cials, sometimes botli, connected by ties of marriage, of sectari- 
anism, and political patronage." 

But a change was coming which altered these conditions, 
and roused a real feeling of patriotism among the Boers. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE JAMESON RAID 

'IIT'HEN, in 1894, in "Europe in Africa in the Nine- 
* • teenth Century," I wrote about South Africa, I 
told of the Diamond Mines at Kimberley (beyond the 
borders of the South African RepubUc), and of the gold 
fields of Johannesburg discovered in 1885, four years after 
the first London Convention restored independence to the 
Transvaal State, subject only to the suzerainty of the Queen 
in its foreign relations. In 1884, the Transvaal obtained 
some concessions in the line of independence, and assumed 
the name of the South African Republic, instead of the 
Republic of the Transvaal. 

When we speak of independence we must not forget 
that the word conveys to the Boer a meaning unlike what 
it does to the rest of the world. We mean by indepen- 
dence, a condition in which a state continues forever self- 
governing and prosperous — a true Republic. To a Boer, 
it means the domination of the high-class burghers in the 
state, — the Boer party being composed of the rude farmers 
of the veldt, and an oligarchy of office-holders at Pretoria. 
" Until European people realize how very divergent are 
their interpretations of * independence,' " says Mr. Fitz- 
patrick, " they will not have begun to understand the 
Transvaal questions." 

The adult male Uitlanders in 1896 largely outnumbered 
the same class among the Boers. All sorts of small exac- 
tions were made on foreigners after the establishment of the 
South African Republic. Every four-pound loaf paid a tax 
of fourpence, every half pound of butter paid sixpence, 
every four pounds of meat or potatoes paid a. shilling. In 



THE JAMESON RAID 357 

addition to these lesser taxes, were the immense sums ex- 
tracted from the pockets of the miners by monopoUes in 
dynamite and mining machinery. 

The Transvaal State, in 1881, was re-established ; its trade 
was restored ; its enemies were crushed, for Secocoeni 
and Cetewayo were defeated and their power was broken. 
The debts of the Transvaal were paid, or made a debt to 
England to be paid when possible. But, ignoring these 
obligations, the oligarchy representing the Boer Govern- 
ment was resolved to keep all power in its own hands. 
The franchise was granted only to male descendants of 
eight thousand Boers who had trekked into the country 
before annexation in 1S77. In 1896, these voters, sup- 
posed to represent a population of more than seven hun- 
dred thousand whites, were only twenty-two thousand. 

Among the stipulations of the Convention of 1881 was 
one that the people of the Transvaal should not trek 
beyond their own borders, should not endeavor to annex 
neighboring native States, which were all in the British 
" sphere of influence." Not many months elapsed after 
the Convention was signed before Boers raided the territory 
of native chiefs in British Bechuanaland and attacked 
Mafeking. President Kruger even put forth a proclama- 
tion placing this territory under his own rule. This open 
defiance of the agreement, signed and sealed by the Boer 
President and his Volksraad, was too much even for Mr. 
Gladstone, who demanded that the Transvaal Republic 
should withdraw its proclamation and evacuate the country 
it had attempted to annex. An expedition under Sir Charles 
Warren was sent to hold Bechuanaland " at a cost," says 
Mr. Fitzpatrick, " of over a million and a half to the British 
tax-payer." 

In Zululand and other neighboring States, the Boer 
Government tried to do the same thing ; but all their 
attempts to annex territory which would give them an out- 
let to the Indian Ocean proved unsuccessful. 

Again and again the Uitlanders petitioned for a redress 
of grievances, and for recognition of their rights according 



358 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

to the Convention of 1884. They were met by the stern 
words of President Kruger, "Never — never — never." 

At last they began to form what was called the National 
Union, at Johannesburg. For a long time capitalists in the 
country refused to take part in it ; in the event of disturb- 
ances they dreaded to incur losses. Not all who joined 
this league were Uitlanders ; many were Boers who dis- 
approved the policy of the President and of his Volksraad ; 
the latter consisted of two chambers, each composed of 
twenty-seven men. The members of the upper chamber, 
called the Executive Council, were entirely dependent upon 
President Kruger' s will. 

While the sums raised by taxes, concessions, and other 
means were enormous, the Government was constantly com- 
plaining of poverty. Even its extravagance did not seem 
to account for the disappearance of vast sums. The truth, 
as we know it now, was that from and after 1884 President 
Kruger, anticipating a struggle to abrogate the suzerainty 
of the Queen, and cherishing an ambitious project of 
becoming himself the suzerain of the Federated States of 
South Africa, had been making secret purchases in Europe 
of enormous quantities of modern warlike material, cannon 
of the latest pattern, quick firing, and of great force, 
besides rifles of the most recent make. These things, 
secretly imported through Lorenzo Marquez, were stored 
with great secrecy when they reached the Transvaal. If 
Englishmen showed any disposition to view the arma- 
ment of the Republic, they were taken unhesitatingly to 
one or two arsenals where were stored all sorts of out- 
of-date arms and rusty, antiquated cannon. These they 
were encouraged to look over and examine. Consequently 
when Sir William BuUer, Military Commander in Cape 
Colony, learned something of the truth, and informed 
his government that great stores of warlike material had 
been imported from Europe, and were hidden away in 
the Transvaal, he was reproved for being an alarmist, and 
the authorities assured him that they had very different 
reports from their own confidential agents, who had been 



THE JAMESON RAID 359 

freely permitted to examine and explore the arsenals in the 
Transvaal. 

Up to the autumn of 1895, a constitutional agitation for 
the rights of the unenfranchised portion of the population 
was persistently carried on by the Transvaal National 
Union. I have said this body did not contain many of the 
Johannesburg capitalists; they abstained from joining an 
association looked on with suspicion by the Government 
and by a large party of the Boers. Yet the majority of the 
Boers would not have taken any active steps to oppose the 
Uitlanders, had it not been for Dr. Jameson's unfortunate 
invasion of the Transvaal, at the head of a body of armed 
men. 

The small body of voters supposed to represent public 
opinion in the Transvaal jealously guarded their right to 
vote, which was their patent of nobility, their engine of 
power, and it may not unfairly be added, the source of their 
wealth. 

To bestow the franchise upon settlers from foreign lands, 
whether from South African States or distant countries, was 
to them a proportionate loss of what they called " indepen- 
dence," the right of the party in power to do whatever it 
might please. But although, up to 1S95, capitalists and 
wealthy land-owners refused to contemplate any ultimate 
resort to violent measures, they began to adopt the views of 
the Reform party after the Volksraad had announced its 
fixed intention to grant no redress of grievances, — no 
measure of reform. To attempt to obtain relief by any 
method of petition, deputation, or appeal to the Con- 
vention of 1S84 was, for the Uitlanders, who paid nine- 
tenths of the taxes of the Republic, kicking against the 
pricks. President Kruger recognized this as early as 1S92, 
when he dismissed an Uitlander deputation which waited 
on him, with the words : " Go back and tell your people 
that I shall never give them anything. I shall never 
change my policy. And now let the storm burst." 

Subsequentl}', in 1894, when the Raad received a petition 
for the redress of grievances signed by thirty-two thousand 



360 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Uitlanders, it replied that if the signers wanted the fran- 
chise they must fight for it. 

Up to the time of the Jameson Raid, the most dissatisfied 
settlers in the South African Republic were the South 
African Uitlanders. 

" These men, born in South Africa or having spent the best 
years of their lives there, felt extremely bitter against the Boer 
Government, and were moved by feelings that were not in any 
way connected with material gain. With them were closely 
associated men of all nationaUties who had determined to make 
their homes in the Transvaal, and who there formed the class 
which has been disparagingly referred to as the ' political 
element.' . . . They were the men who meant to have a hand in 
the future of South Africa ; after them came a much larger 
class whose interest in the reforms was based mainly on the 
fact that they suffered from the abuses and over-taxation of the 
government." 

To these we may add another class, mere mineworkers, 
whose interest in the Transvaal was temporary, who had no 
intention of dweUing there, and who for the short time it 
might take them to accumulate their " pile " were ready to 
pay anything the Government pleased for the privilege of 
protection. These men, during the last two years, have 
been widely scattered over the United States, England, and 
other countries. All deprecate the war which has ruined 
them. All say, "Why could not the Uitlanders have let 
things alone? " 

The capitahsts in Johannesburg were looked to by such 
Boers as were progressive, to aid reform by peaceful means, 
and to use all their influence against rash and violent 
measures. They were withheld from these last by a sense 
that their interests could not but suffer if a revolutionary 
frenzy took possession of Johannesburg ; but there was 
nothing to debar them from endeavoring to promote 
reforms which would benefit them equally with every honest 
man in the community. Proprietors of mines resident in 
Cape Colony and in England had many millions invested 
in the Transvaal, and were of course heavy suffisrers in the 



THE JAMESON RAID 36l 

existing state of things which affected the mining industry. 
As business men, they were anxious for reforms, but not for 
revolution. But as hopes of reform grew less, revolution- 
ary instincts grew stronger. Arrangements were made with 
Dr. Jameson, the military commandant in Rhodesia, who 
was to muster a force of fifteen hundred men with Maxims 
and field artillery on the frontier of the Transvaal, while 
Johannesburg was to smuggle in five thousand rifles, three 
Maxims, and a million rounds of ammunition. This, with 
one thousand rifles already in the hands of the men of 
Johannesburg, would, it was thought, be a sufficient 
armament. 

The original plan, concerted with Dr. Jameson during a 
visit he paid his brother, was that the men of Johannesburg 
should first seize Fort Pretoria, which dominated the city. 
It chanced that the surrounding wall of the fort had been 
thrown down on one side to make certain alterations. The 
garrison was only one hundred men. A great store of 
rifles was known to be laid up in the arsenal. 

No one now attempts to justify the invasion of the 
Transvaal by an armed force under Dr. Jameson,-' So long 
as the dispute was confined to Uitlanders resident in the 
Transvaal, the sympathy of every one was with the op- 
pressed. It was the alliance with foreign invaders that 
forfeited their sympathy. The plan of the Reformers was 
to call in Dr. Jameson in case they found themselves hard 
pressed by the burghers ; but when Dr. Jameson visited 
Johannesburg in September, 1895, a scheme for simul- 
taneous action had been drawn out. 

In November of the same year, the Doctor again visited 
Johannesburg, where his brother was a member of the 
Reform Committee, and there a letter signed by Messrs. 
Leonard, Phillips, Francis Rhodes, John Hay Hammond, 
and George Farrar was handed to him. It asked him to 
participate in a revolutionary movement to be organized in 

1 Friends resident in England at the time of Jameson's Raid have 
assured me it was universally condemned. They had not heard one 
word said in sympathy with it. 



362 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Johannesburg. The letter was not dated until it was pub- 
lished in the "Times" in London, when it purported to 
have been written on Dec. 20, 1895. 

The first arrangement was that Jameson should leave 
Mafeking two days before the intended outbreak in Jo- 
hannesburg. But finally it was settled that he must not 
move until he received the signal from the Reform Com- 
mittee. There was no question in men's minds about 
assisting Dr. Jameson, — he was coming to assist the 
Johannesburgers, not they him. But things during the 
closing weeks of 1895 were not what had been expected. 
The Johannesburg men failed to smuggle many rifles into 
their city, and Jameson's fifteen hundred men shrank to a 
bare five hundred. The first movement was to have been 
to take Fort Pretoria ; but an important preliminary re- 
mained to be adjusted, and two leading members of the 
Reform Committee were sent to Mr. Cecil Rhodes at Cape- 
town to settle it. If the object of the expedition was 
" not to deprive the Boer of his independence, or the 
State of its autonomy," then the Union Jack was not its 
proper flag. The Union Jack was the flag of annexa- 
tion, hauled down with shame and pain by the British in 
1881. 

Mr. Rhodes returned the Reform Committee a vague 
answer. He said, that it was " all right about the flag ; " 
but those who had joined the movement with the under- 
standing that the Transvaal flag ^ was to be maintained did 
not consider the assurance of Mr. Rhodes, that it was all 
right about the flag, as satisfactory. 

" Among the Reformers there had always been a consider- 
able section who regarded the alliance or arrangement with 
Dr. Jameson as a very doubtful advantage. It was this section 
that strongly and successfully opposed the suggestion that he 
should start before an actual outbreak. The difference of 
opinion was not such as to cause division in the ranks, but 

1 A reminiscence of the period in which four Republics existed in 
the Transvaal is found in the " Vierkleur," or four-colored Trans- 
vaal flag. 



THE JAMESON RAID 363 

just sufficient to keep alive discussion as to how the common 
aim could be achieved without risk of the complications which 
external aid in the initial stages would be sure to cause. To 
this feeling of doubt was added a sense of distrust when Dr. 
Jameson's impatience and importunity became known, and 
when the question of the flag was raised, there were few among 
those concerned in the movement who did not feel that the tail 
was trying to wag the dog." 

There was much jealousy felt by the Afrikander settlers 
in the South African Republic, who were Dutch from Cape 
Colony and the Orange Free State, against the favor shown 
by the Boer Government to Hollanders and Germans. The 
truth was, that it was through Hollanders and Germans that 
Mr. Kruger was negotiating for more war material, — Long 
Toms, Maxims, and rifles of the newest pattern. These 
men were not willing to fight except as revolutionary re- 
formers under the Transvaal flag. 

In the last week of December, 1895, letters, messages, 
and telegrams poured in on Dr. Jameson, all urging him 
to wait at Mafeking, and at his camp at Pitsani, until he 
should be called upon to advance by the people at Johannes- 
burg ; and counter-communications were received from 
him daily revealing impatience, and a desire, if not an in- 
tention, to act in opposition to the wishes and warnings of 
the Reform Committee. 

On Sunday morning, 29th December, 1895, Mr. Jameson, 
brother of the Doctor, received a telegram couched in such 
secret terms, and so mutilated in transmission, that its 
meaning was not clear. However, it seemed to say, " I 
shall start without fail to-night." Immediately two mes- 
sengers. Major Heany and Captain Holden, were des- 
patched to tell him by no means to carry out this 
intention. The Johannesburg people made no doubt he 
would receive this message before starting, and would not 
dare to invade the Transvaal in defiance of their wishes. 

Meantime, it became generally known at Pretoria and 
Johannesburg that something was on foot. President 
Kruger is said to have suspected it for some time, but his 



364 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

policy, as he often said, was to let the tortoise put out his 
head if you want to cut it off. 

A young girl who had a lover in the Bechuanaland 
police is said to have received a letter telling her to expect 
a visit from him soon, together with many comrades, on 
their way to Johannesburg. How true this may be, it is 
not easy to say, for other accounts tell us that the Bechu- 
analand police had no knowledge of where they were to be 
led, and thought it was against some native chief who was 
interfering with the railroad. 

However, Jameson began his march from his camp at 
Pitsani and from Mafeking, on Sunday evening, Dec. 29, 
1895. 

An old burgher, a few days before this, had spoken to 
the President, telling him that rumors were afloat as to a 
possible invasion. Mr. Kruger answered that he had heard 
of the threatened rising, but did not believe it, adding his 
favorite metaphor about the tortoise and its shell. Mean- 
time, however, he had sent hurried riders to all villages 
on the road between Johannesburg and Mafeking, calling on 
the burghers to hold themselves in readiness, each man on 
his horse, with his rifle at his back, ready for what might 
happen. 

Deputation after deputation, in the last weeks before the 
storm burst, urged the President to give way and grant the 
reforms, which were everywhere acknowledged to be just 
and necessary. All met with rebuffs; some were scorn- 
fully treated. A second deputation of Americans, undis- 
mayed by the rough treatment of the first, waited on Mr. 
Kruger. On seeing them, he was in a state of great irrita- 
tion. He told them it was impossible to grant the franchise 
to Uitlanders, American, British, or others. He would lose 
his power if he did so. The Government would no longer 
be in his hands. A member of the deputation said : " Surely 
if we take the oath of allegiance, you will trust us? " The 
President hesitated a moment, then said : " This is no 
time to talk about these things : I can promise you 
nothing." 



THE JAMESON RAID 365 

On Monday, December 30, mysterious telegrams were 
received by leaders in the Reform movement, and at 
last, — 

" Between four and half-past four Monday afternoon, Mr. 
A. L. Lawley came hurriedly into the room where several of 
the leaders were met, saying, ' It is all up, boys. He has 
started in spite of everything. Read this ! ' . . . The Re- 
formers realized that by taking the initiative Jameson seriously 
impaired the justice of the Uitlanders' cause. ... He had 
plunged them into a crisis for which, as he knew, they were 
insufficiently provided and prepared, and at the same time 
destroyed the one chance, — the one certainty on which they 
had always counted for arms and ammunition, — he made the 
taking of the Pretoria Arsenal impossible." 

Nor did Jameson bring with him fifteen hundred men ; 
he had between five and six hundred. 

Taken by surprise as the men of Johannesburg were at 
this outbreak of a revolutionary war and a foreign invasion, 
they at once bestirred themselves to defend and hold their 
town. They never expected that a well-equipped force of 
(as they thought) seven hundred men, provided with artil- 
lery, would fail, at least, to reach them. 

Many men who had held aloof from the Reform move- 
ment came forward to take part in Johannesburg's defence 
and to assist in police work, for danger of disorder was 
increased by the influx of natives, thrown out of employ- 
ment by the closing of the mines. By the exertions of 
this improvised police, perfect order was maintained in 
Johannesburg as long as the troubles lasted. The com- 
mittee had only three thousand rifles, and twenty thousand 
men clamored for guns. The drinking places where liquor 
was sold by Kaffir canteen-keepers to Kaffirs, in defiance of 
the law, were closed, and their stocks confiscated, the 
Reform leaders taking all responsibility, and agreeing to 
pay the owners for any loss. 

Meantime, while doubt and perplexity were agitating the 
inhabitants of Johannesburg, Dr. Jameson read to his men 
the letter he had had undated in his hands for two months. 



366 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

This letter summoned him to the assistance of the Johannes- 
burgers ; his men supposed that it had just been received. 
He told them he expected to enter Johannesburg without 
bloodshed, before his movements were suspected by the 
Boers. Some of them asked him if they were to fight under 
the English flag and by the Queen's orders. They were 
assured that they were going to fight for the supremacy 
of the British flag in South Africa. 

Captain Holden, the man who bore a peremptory message 
from the Reform committee, warning Dr. Jameson that he 
must not start, reached Mafeking on Saturday night, De- 
cember 28, delivered his message, and remained with the 
column. Major Heany came by a roundabout way by 
special train to Mafeking, and thence hurried to the camp 
Jameson had established at Pitsani. He too remained with 
the column, and was taken prisoner. His message, which 
he delivered accurately, made little impression on Dr. 
Jameson, who had already completed his plans. 

The Doctor's own explanation of his movement was, 
" We are simply going to protect everybody, while they 
change the present dishonest government, and take vote 
from the whole country as to form of government required 
by the whole." 

The great military fault of the leaders of this most regret- 
table expedition was that they hurried forward their men 
without giving them time for rest or food. It was not until 
they had covered one hundred and thirty miles, that they 
came in contact with the Boers ; but on the march the men 
became so weary that, the moment a halt was called, they 
dropped from their saddles, and lay asleep upon the ground. 

A trooper from Johannesburg, sent with letters to Jameson 
and his officers, was taken prisoner by the Boers, but after 
a detention of some hours he was sent on with his letters 
under escort. Uninfluenced by the messages that this 
man brought, the bugles sounded, and the column moved 
on. Shortly after this it captured Lieutenant Eloff, a 
grandson of President Kruger, who had been sent with 
nine men to make a reconnaissance. He was released 




LORD KITCHENER. 



THE JAMESON RAID 367 

after a short detention, and soon after found himself with 
a considerable Boer force that was moving on Krugersdorp. 

Next came a despatch from Sir Jacobus de Wet, British 
Agent at Pretoria, warning Dr. Jameson to return to 
Mafeking, to which was sent this reply : " My men and 
horses are without food. We could not possibly retire the 
way we came, but must press forward." 

Dr. Jameson appears not to have expected help from 
Johannesburg, and at first seems to have discouraged it. 
At last, however, he said, " Two hundred men to escort 
us into Johannesburg would make us look less like pirates, 
and would encourage my men, who are in great heart, 
though a bit tired." 

So they went forward to Krugersdorp, which they reached 
at 3 P.M., on Wednesday, the first day of the year 1896. 
Had they made their way through a small Boer force 
posted at Krugersdorp, and pushed on all night along the 
straight road to Johannesburg, they might have reached it 
safe. Unfortunately they had picked up two Boers to act 
as guides. These men betrayed them. They led them by 
a long detour — to avoid, as they said, the force posted at 
Krugersdorp — to Doornkop, where a strong force of Boers 
was waiting, posted on a cluster of kopjes. 

Dr. Jameson and Sir John Willoughby, who commanded 
the troops, pursued the plan which has since been found 
so disadvantageous to European troops when fighting Boers. 
They made a front attack, never doubting that they could 
carry the position. But, in order to attack, the men had to 
advance over perfectly open, gently-sloping grassy ground, 
while the Boers lay hid behind rocks, and fired with rifles, 
Maxims, and artillery upon their assailants. Dr. Jameson, 
after making a desperate effort to get through, surrendered ; 
and, says Captain Younghusband, the correspondent of the 
" Times " who came up from Johannesburg, — 

" We saw his brave little band riding dejectedly back again 
to Krugersdorp without arms and surrounded by a Boer escort. 
... It was evident that probably no one had ever started on 
a more desperate venture than had this daring little force, and 



368 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

they gained by their gallantry the admiration not only of the 
Boer burghers who spoke to me, but of the whole town of 
Johannesburg. These Boers — rough, simple men dressed in 
ordinary civilian clothes, with merely a rifle slung over the 
shoulder to show they were soldiers — spoke in feeling terms 
of the splendid bravery shown by their assailants. They were 
perfectly calm, and spoke without any boastfulness, in a self- 
reliant way. They said, pointing to the ground, that the thing 
was impossible, and hence the result." 

The total loss of Dr. Jameson's little force was about 
twenty. The Boer commandant on this occasion was P. 
A. Cronj^, who wrote to Sir John Willoughby, the military 
commander of the invading force, — 

" If you will undertake to pay the expense which you have 
caused the South African Republic, and if you will surrender 
with your arms, then I shall spare the lives of you and yours." 

The answer was, — 

" I accept the terms, on the guarantee that the lives of all 
will be spared. I now await your instructions as to how and 
where we are to lay down our arms. At the same time I would 
ask you to remember that my men have been without food for 
the last twenty-four hours." 

No sooner was this arranged, and the arms surrendered, 
than another officer, Commandant Malan, came up and 
reproached Cronj6 for his promise to spare his prisoners' 
lives, saying that they ought to be handed over to General 
Joubert, the Commander-in-chief, and the War Council, who 
would know how to deal vi^ith them. 

" There was much ill-feeling about this ; and a sharp alter- 
cation among the Boers took place in the presence of the 
officers who had surrendered ; many disapproved of Cronj^'s 
action, and threats were uttered against Jameson and his men. 
The Doctor declined to be present at the discussion, but 
bowed and walked away." 

Cronj^ had had a bad reputation among the British before 
that time, for acts he had committed in the war of 1881. 
Now that twenty years later he is a prisoner at St. Helena, 



THE JAMESON RAID 369 

we are rather inclined to look upon him as a hero. How- 
ever, under the threats and disapproval of Commandant 
Malan, he increased the severity of his terms of surrender, 
saying that he only meant to guarantee the lives of Dr. 
Jameson and his men so long as they were in his hands. 

The rank and file had been marched before this into 
Krugersdorp, where they were treated kindly. Provisions 
were given' them, which they ate like starving men ; in 
many cases on the march the Boers had given them from 
their own scant stores food to stay their hunger ; while all 
expressed for them great respect, and admiration of their 
bravery. 

Here we see what has been further exemplified during the 
late war, that, in general, individual Boers have shown to their 
opponents a kindly spirit, but that the Boer Government has 
paid no respect to promises, and its high officials who held 
office under Mr. Kruger are not only treacherous but cruel. 

We cannot but say in connection with the Jameson inci- 
dent that the prisoners were treated with every considera- 
tion by their captors, until they were delivered into the 
hands of the authorities in Pretoria. Dr. Jameson indeed 
was threatened by some unruly persons in the streets of 
Pretoria, but he was protected by the officers in charge of 
him. " It must be said of the Boers that they acted with 
admirable self-restraint and dignity in a position such as 
very few are called upon to face." ^ 

President Kruger, however, was furious, bursting out into 
almost insane exclamations whenever the word Uitlander 
was pronounced in his presence. He was not likely to pay 
much respect to Cronj6's promises, when he habitually 
showed disregard for his own ; but knowing that the Raid 
might be expected, and making preparations to meet it, " he 
showed great presence of mind, skill, and courage ; and in 
quiet moments, when recalling all that happened at this 
period (if human at all), his Honor must indulge in a 
chuckle now and then to think how he jockeyed everybody." 

At first the people in Johannesburg refused to believe in 

1 "The Transvaal from Within," by J. P. Fitzpatrick. 
24 



370 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Dr. Jameson's surrender; no one bad doubted his ability 
to force his way into their city. The populace was ready 
to march out, armed or unarmed, to rescue him, and 
blamed the Reform Committee for not having despatched 
men to his assistance. 

When news reached Johannesburg that the Government 
of the Transvaal considered the surrender of Dr. Jameson 
and his men as unconditional, there was a frenzy of horror 
and indignation in the town. The first — and for a time 
the only consideration — was what could be done to secure 
the safety of the Doctor and his comrades. 

It is unnecessary here to report the telegrams that passed 
between Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of Cape Colony, 
Mr. Chamberlain in London, and Sir Jacobus de Wet, the 
British Agent at Pretoria. The object of President Kruger 
and his government was to bargain for the surrender of all 
arms in Johannesburg, as a condition for keeping the 
promise made by Cronj^ to spare the lives of the pris- 
oners, whom he held as common convicts in Pretoria jail. 
The British Agent was advised that if all arms in Johannes- 
burg issued under the authority of the Reform Committee 
were given up. Dr. Jameson and his men would be turned 
over to the British Government to stand their trial under 
English laws and receive due punishment. It was under- 
stood that no proceedings would be taken against leaders in 
the Reform movement, and that the grievances they com- 
plained of would be discussed. Believing that these promises, 
made to them through the English agent in Pretoria, could 
be relied on, members of the Reform Committee at once 
set themselves to collect the arms. The same evening, how- 
ever, the principal leaders of the Reform movement were 
arrested, and the next morning all men belonging to the 
Reform Committee, sixty-four in number, were in custody. 
Nothing more, of course, was heard of the redress of griev- 
ances. The arms in Johannesburg had been honestly sur- 
rendered. The Reform leaders, misled by what was known 
as Mr. Kruger's Forgive and Forget proclamation, had been 
captured unawares, and were in the jail in Pretoria, 



THE JAMESON RAID 3/1 

Nor was the fate of Dr. Jameson and his comrades by any 
means decided. Under all sorts of pretexts they were still 
detained. The English Government saw no reason for send- 
ing the whole five hundred men who had simply obeyed 
orders, to stand trial in England. The President replied 
that in that case they should have their trial in Pretoria. 
If so, it was to be apprehended that their fate would be 
deplorable. After much negotiation, telegraphic commu- 
nication, and tergiversation, England was permitted to re- 
move the prisoners to Durban, whence they were sent to 
England. 

Dr. Jameson and his officers, on arriving in London 
(where, to say truth, they were received with a noisy demon- 
stration of sympathy from the populace), were indicted 
under the Foreign Enlistment Act of 1870. The soldiers 
and non-commissioned officers were acquitted. In July, Dr. 
Jameson and his officers were brought to trial, and, a verdict 
of guilty having been pronounced, they were sentenced to 
varying terms of imprisonment, Dr. Jameson's sentence 
being for fifteen months. Their imprisonment was not very 
severe, and most of them were pardoned before their sen- 
tences expired. 

Dr. Leyds, then on a roving mission in Europe, probably 
in a great measure to arrange for large purchases of arms, 
was extremely desirous to induce the English Government 
to indict Mr. Cecil Rhodes for conspiracy, and to take from 
him the managership of the Chartered South African Com- 
pany. Dr. Leyds so far succeeded as to bring about a Par- 
liamentary inquiry into the methods and management of the 
Chartered Company ; but the public were not disposed to 
stir in the matter, and it went no further. 

Sir Jacobus de Wet, who was a very old man, was suc- 
ceeded by Mr. Greene, a younger Englishman ; he, it was 
hoped, might prove a better match for the astute Presi- 
dent, who had achieved a complete triumph, and still held 
sixty-four men, all of mark and social standing, in his 
hands. 

I have not space to dwell upon the sufferings of these 



372 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

gentlemen in Pretoria jail, A howling mob surrounded 
them as they were escorted to the prison. One man, nearly 
sixty years of age, was thrown down by an excited patriot, 
and kicked and trampled on before he could be rescued by 
his comrades. On arriving at the jail, the prisoners were 
treated like ordinary convicts, four or five men being in- 
carcerated in single cells 9 feet long, 5 feet 6 inches wide, 
without ventilation or accommodation of any kind. In one 
instance, one of them, who was suffering from fever and 
dysentery, was locked up twelve hours in one of these cells 
with four others. Their jailer was a man named Du Plessis, 
a relation of Mrs. Kruger, and in constant confidential com- 
munication with the President. Of his brutalities I will 
not trust myself to speak. He was subsequently removed 
when his evil deeds had become notorious ; but he was at 
once made, by Mr. Kruger, Inspector of Prisons. 

It is not here necessary to go into an account of the 
trial of the Reformers, which began April 27, 1896, and 
lasted for some days. It was as unlike judicial proceed- 
ings in England and America as those of the late trial of 
Zola or the court-martial at Rennes. The judges of the 
Supreme Court in Pretoria were either unavailable or could 
not be relied on, and President Kruger had to import a judge 
from Orange Free State. His name was Gregorowski. He 
prepared himself beforehand with a black cap, in anticipa- 
tion of his sentence. He conducted the case, not accord- 
ing to the laws in use in the South African Republic, but 
according to Dutch-Roman law, by which he could pass 
sentence of death upon the principal prisoners, if they were 
convicted. These were four in number, Lionel Phillips, 
Colonel Francis Rhodes, George Farrar, and John Hay 
Hammond. 

Of the sixty-three prisoners, members of the Reform 
Committee at Johannesburg (originally 64, but one died in 
prison), 23 were Englishmen, 16 South Africans, 9 Scotch- 
men, 6 Americans, 2 Welshmen, i Irishman, i Hollander, 
I Bavarian, i German, i Canadian, i Swiss, and i Turk. 

When Judge Gregorowski summed up, he stated that he 



THE JAMESON RAID 373 

held the five men who had signed the letter of invitation 
to Dr. Jameson (kept in the Doctor's pocket for two 
months) responsible for the shedding of the blood of Boer 
burghers at Doornskop, and should therefore pass on the 
four before him the only punishment possible under the 
Roman-Dutch law, — namely, sentence of death, — and that 
whatever hope there might be for them lay in the merci- 
ful hearts of the Executive Council, and in the President's 
great magnanimity. 

The sentence took every one in the court-house by sur- 
prise. The men who signed the letter had been advised to 
plead guilty, under the idea that by so doing they would 
escape with only nominal punishment. There was dead 
silence in the court-room. 

" It was only disturbed by the breaking down of persons tn 
various parts of the hall, — officials, burghers, and the general 
public, — as sentence of death was passed, first, on Mr. Lionel 
Phillips, next, on Colonel Rhodes, then, on Mr. George Farrar, 
and lastly, on Mr. Hammond [the American]. The bearing of 
the four men won for them universal sympathy and approval, 
especially under the conditions immediately following the death 
sentence, when a most painful scene took place in court. Evi- 
dences of feeling came from all parts of the room, and from all 
classes of people, from those who conducted the defence, and 
from the Boers who were to have constituted the jury. The in- 
terpreter translating the sentence broke down. Many of the 
minor officials lost control of themselves, and feelings were 
further strained by the incident of one man falling insensible. 
Sentence was next passed upon the other prisoners : they were 
condemned to suffer two years' imprisonment, to pay a fine of 
;^2ooo each, or, as an alternative, suffer another year's imprison- 
ment, and thereafter to be banished from the State for a period 
of three years. It was added that the question of the confisca- 
tion of their property would be one for the Executive to deal 
with." 

The manner of the judge when passing sentence drew 
from a sergeant of police the remark in the peculiar Dutch 
idiom : " My God ! he is like a dog ; he has bitten, and 
chewed, and guzzled ! " 



374 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The Reformers, without regard to the nature of their 
offence, their habits, race, age, or condition, were handed 
over to Du Plessis, to be treated like other criminals, for in 
a Boer prison no distinction is made. 

Mr. Fitzpatrick, who was one of the sufferers, devotes a 
chapter to their life in jail. One man went mad, and 
though his fellow- prisoners took it in turns to keep a watch 
over him, he contrived to kill himself. Others were suffer- 
ing from fever, diabetes, dysentery, and other maladies, 
but nothing was done to ameliorate their condition. 

Persistent efforts were made to induce them — especially 
the four men sentenced to death — to petition for mercy. 
This was made a great point of by President Kruger, partly 
because he thought that such an appeal would imply a con- 
fession of guilt, and partly because he wished the world 
clearly to understand his magnanimity. 

The first petition, drawn up under his own eye, was one 
in which they were made to admit the justice of their sen- 
tence, to express regret for what they had done, and to 
make promises to behave better in future. It closed with 
an obsequious and humiliating appeal to " the proved 
magnanimity of the Government." This petition all the 
prisoners refused to sign. 

Mr. Kruger asserted that he must receive an appeal 
before he could even take notice of the existence of the 
prisoners. But his own law-officers told their counsel that 
no petition was necessary. 

Day after day^ the unfortunate men were harassed by 
importunities to reconsider their decision, and to put into 
the hands of the Government a document which would be a 
confession of guilt, and an acquiescence in the justice of 
their trial. Some poor fellows, for the sake of their wives 
and families, at last consented to sign a modified form of 
petition; but the four sentenced to death, and eleven 
others, absolutely refused. They even told those who 
signed, under a promise of immediate release, that promises 
made by Mr. Kruger were not to be relied on. They were 
right. The men who signed the document required of 



THE JAMESON RAID 375 

them obtained only a commutation of their sentences of 
imprisonment ; while the clemency of the Government 
toward the four men sentenced to death was shown only 
by a change of sentence to imprisonment for fifteen years. 

Fifteen years of imprisonment in the Pretoria jail was 
tantamount to a slow death. Du Plessis himself told one of 
them that if all the rules of the prison were rigidly enforced, 
not one would be alive a month, for no white man could 
stand them. 

Meantime sympathy for the prisoners throughout South 
Africa began to take a practical form. A petition for 
clemency with twenty thousand signatures had been sum- 
marily rejected. It was resolved to get up another petition 
to be carried in person to Pretoria, by the mayors of two 
hundred towns in South Africa, including some towns in 
Orange Free State. The mayors were on their way to 
Pretoria, an arduous journey to many of them, when Presi- 
dent Kruger determined to checkmate them. He released 
the prisoners, except the four sentenced to death, and two 
others who to the last refused to sign any form of appeal. 
When the mayors reached Pretoria, there was nothing for 
them to do but to go home. No courteous recognition of 
their mission was accorded them ; but they were admitted 
to an informal interview with the President " in the course 
of which he managed to insult and outrage the feelings of a 
good many of them, by lecturing them and giving utterance 
to very candid opinions as to their personal action and 
duties." 

Each prisoner when released was required to pay his 
;^20oo fine on the spot. He was also required to bind 
himself for the term of three years, reckoned from the day 
of his release. May 30, 1896, neither directly nor indirectly 
to meddle in the internal or external politics of the South 
African Republic. 

One gentleman who had made this engagement was 
afterwards supposed to have broken it, by writing an article 
in the " Nineteenth Century Magazine," which was purely 
historical and narrative, designed only to correct some mis- 



3/6 LAST YEARS OF THE NIxYETEENTH CENTURY 

Statements, published by Sir John VVilloughby on the subject 
of the Raid. For this the Executive Council issued a 
decree of banishment against him ; but as he was already 
domiciled in Europe, exile from the South African Republic 
did him no harm. 

President Kruger was very desirous that the whole body 
of the released prisoners should wait on him, and thank 
him for his magnanimity. But most of the men were dead 
against taking any such action. They said that as they had 
been arrested by treachery, and condemned by arrange- 
ment, they recognized no obligation toward the President. 

"They could see no magnanimity in a policy which had 
secured their arrest under the circumstances described, which 
inveigled them into pleading guilty to a nominal offence, and 
which imposed upon them a sentence such as that passed. 
They considered the enormous fine they were called upon to 
pay, to say nothing of the imprisonment which they had 
already suffered, wholly disproportionate to the offence, and 
their natural impulse was to avoid the man who was directly 
responsible for it all, or at least not to meet him, under circum- 
stances so unequal, when they would be sure to be insulted, and 
would be obliged to suffer the insult in silence." 

This opinion was well founded. A few of the released 
prisoners, urged by their friends, waited on Mr. Kruger, and 
had with him what has been since called " the dog inter- 
view," — • for he said to them, " I sometimes have occasion 
to punish my dogs, and I find there are dogs of two kinds 
among them. Some of them who are good come back 
and lick my boots, others get away at a distance and snarl 
at me. I see that some are still snarling ; I am glad you 
are not like them." 

The interpreter hesitated to turn this into English, and 
the President, perceiving something was wrong, exclaimed, 
" Oh ! that 's only my joke. Don't interpret that to them." 
But those present who understood Boer Dutch saw by his 
expression as he spoke that he was in earnest. 

Great pressure was brought on the four men condemned 
to death to induce them to " make a petition." It was 



THE JAMESON RAID 377 

even a matter of dollars and cents with those who impor- 
tuned them. 

At length the four prisoners, having obtained permission 
to send a messenger of their own to the President, to ascer- 
tain whether he really required a written appeal for revision 
of their sentence, and receiving for answer that it was so, 
addressed a letter to the Executive Council in which, with- 
out using humiliating language, they suggested the impo- 
sition of a monetary penalty in place of fifteen years' 
imprisonment ; and if the Executive Council saw fit to 
adopt this suggestion, they would return to their business in 
good faith. 

But here a pious scruple suggested itself. To take 
money to set aside a death-sentence was, like Judas, to 
accept blood-money. However, the Boers and their Presi- 
dent reasoned it out, and agreed that there would be no 
harm in accepting a present, if the prisoners would make 
their offer in those terms. 

The Reformers were led to believe that _;i^i 0,000 apiece, 
that is, ;^40,ooo for the four (about ^194,000), would secure 
their release. But again there was a difficulty. The Presi- 
dent was sure they must have meant to offer ^40,000 
apiece and not ^10,000. When this was made known to 
them, they steadily refused to increase their offer. 

The Executive Council then said that they must consult 
Judge Gregorowski as to the amount of money they ought 
to accept, that money to be used for objects of charity. 
Judge Gregorowski thought the Executive Council ought 
not to take less than ^25,000 a head. 

It was then suggested to the prisoners that they should 
increase their offer of ;^io,ooo apiece to ^^40,000 apiece; 
that the President would then refuse to take for charity so 
large a sum, but would be glad to accept ^100,000, being 
^25,000 apiece. Thus the matter was arranged, the fines 
were paid, and on June 11, 1896, the four leaders were 
released. They declined, however, to be grateful to the 
President, saying that they had paid their way out of 
prison, and looked on the arrangement as a bargain. It is 



3/8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

not known that any charities were benefited by the 
transaction. 

Messrs. Phillips, Farrar, and Hammond went back to 
Johannesburg, making a promise to abstain from any inter- 
ference, external or internal, in the politics of the Trans- 
vaal. But Colonel Rhodes preferred banishment, and was 
sent across the border under escort. A few weeks later he 
came near being shot in a skirmish with Matabeles near 
Bulawayo. He has since been with Kitchener in his march 
to Khartoum, and is now, I think, with Lord Roberts as a 
correspondent for a London newspaper. 

Two men were left behind in prison, — Messrs. Sampson 
and Davies. They refused to make any appeal, and, con- 
cerning them, Du Plessis said openly, " Wait until the 
others have gone, and if the Government will leave them in 
my hands, I '11 make them ready to sign anything." 

They were released, however, a year later, in June, 1897. 
Such representations were made by Colonel Rhodes to the 
British High Commissioner for South Africa at Capetown 
that not long after the release of the other prisoners, the 
conduct of Du Plessis was brought by the English Govern- 
ment to the notice of the Executive Council. He was 
removed from Pretoria jail, and, as I have said he was 
shortly after made Inspector of Prisons. 



CHAPTER VII 

THE BOER WAR. LADYSMITH 

T^OR three years the Transvaal remained practically quiet ; 
■^ but Johannesburg, under the Government's municipal 
regulations, became very unwholesome, — the police were 
inefficient, or were active only when an Uitlander was to 
be assailed, or even murdered. Mr. Edgar, for example, 
was shot down by a policeman in his own house, and the 
murderer received but a light punishment. The free sale 
of liquor to the natives, which, though illegal, was con- 
nived at by the authorities, produced great disorder at the 
mines and in the city ; but the Reformers had taken an 
oath to take no part in politics for three years, and there- 
fore were powerless to interfere with the municipality of 
their own city. 

President Kruger employed this time, and his large 
means, in accumulating munitions of war, until, besides 
his purchases of modern cannon, he is said to have had 
rifles enough to arm every Dutch-Afrikander, not only in 
the Transvaal and Orange Free State, but throughout 
Cape Colony. He had begun this system of laying up 
arms some time before the Jameson Raid ; but the Uit- 
landers were forbidden by law to import arms, and con- 
sidered that prohibition one of their grievances. 

President Kruger and Mr. Cecil Rhodes nourished rival 
schemes of ambition ; each would have liked to see a 
Federation of South African States, or a United States of 
South Africa. Mr. Kruger desired to be himself head of 
such a great Republic ; Mr. Rhodes wished a Federated 
South Africa to be an Imperial Federation, with his Cape 
to Cairo Railroad running through its midst. Neither 



380 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

was very likely to get what he aspired to, but President 
Kruger's hopes were high. The Emperor William had 
sent him a telegram of congratulation on his victory over 
the Raiders at Doornkop, but soon becoming convinced 
that it was the aim of the Boer President to establish a 
Dutch Empire under the name of a republic in South 
Africa, he realized that Kruger's ambition would not stop 
short of annexing German West Africa, with its fine harbor 
on the Atlantic at Walfish Bay. He then discerned that his 
true policy would be to open up his colonies in Africa by 
cordial relations with the projector of the Cape to Cairo 
Railroad. He therefore received Mr. Cecil Rhodes at 
Berlin most graciously, discussed African problems with 
him in a private interview, and changed his views about 
the Boers. 

After the Jameson Raid, Mr. Kruger missed his oppor- 
tunity of consolidating his republic in the Transvaal, He 
might have conciliated the Uitlanders by a partial reduc- 
tion of their grievances, for they were by no means anxious 
for any disturbances that would bring on war. 

" We repudiated," says Mr. Hammond, the American leader 
on the Reform Committee, " any subversion of Boer sov- 
ereignty. It would have been impossible to have foisted the 
British flag or any other flag upon the inhabitants of the Trans- 
vaal; the Anglo-Saxon members of the community themselves 
would have forcibly resisted any such attempt." 

There is little doubt that Mr. Kruger in his heart shared 
in the views that a Boer pastor at Burghersdorp, professor 
in a school of Dopper Theology, expressed to Mr. Steevens 
on his way to the front in the beginning of the war. 

" I do not think the Transvaal Government have been wise. 
I have many times told them so. They made great mistakes to 
let people into the mines. I told them, this gold will be your 
ruin to remain independent. But when that was done, what 
could they do? If they gave franchise, the Republic is gov- 
erned by three, four men from Johannesburg, and they will 
govern it for their own pocket. The Transvaal burghers would 
rather be English Colony than Johannesburg Republic." 



THE BOER WAR 381 

Mr. Kruger, more worldly-wise and practical than the 
Dopper pastor, governed also " for his own pocket." In 
1886, the revenue of the South African Republic was less 
than a million; in 1899, it was twenty millions. Nor was 
he going to miss the opportunity offered him by the un- 
happy Raid. He had much to say of his own magnanim- 
ity in turning over Jameson and his men to be tried in 
England ; but he made the most of his advantage in having 
the Reformers of Johannesburg in his hands. He brought 
in against the owners of the mines a bill of ^677,938 3^. 3^. 
for actual damages caused by the Raid, besides one mil- 
lion pounds sterling for what he itemized as moral and 
intellectual damages. He did not set down as /^r contra 
the quarter million he extracted from his prisoners as 
fines. 

If he desired to be chief of a Federation of Republics 
in South Africa, it surely showed want of statesmanship 
that he did nothing to conciliate the business inhabitants of 
Cape Colony or of the Free State. He addressed himself 
solely to the racial prejudices of the farmers on the veldt. 

•' In his dealings with Cape Colony he has taxed the pro- 
ducts of their land and industry ; he went to the verge of war 
to destroy their trade in the case of the closing of the Vaal 
River drifts; he has permitted the Netherlands Railway to 
so arrange its tariffs as to divert traffic from there to other 
parts ; he has refused to these people (his own flesh and blood, 
among whom he was born) the most elementary rights when 
they settle in his country ! . . . His treatment of the Orange 
Free State has been exactly the same. . . . But President 
Kruger is above all things practical. Everything is gauged by 
the measure of the advantage which it can bring to him ; and 
within the borders of the Transvaal the policy is just the 
same." 

" Nevertheless it is difficult to overestimate the influence 
of race feeling in moments of excitement," said a man in 
Cape Colony to Mr. Steevens. " It does not as a rule exist 
between man and man in our social relations, but the 
moment men are banded together it becomes intense." 



382 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Englishmen will stand by Englishmen, Americans by 
Americans, when in foreign lands. Blood is thicker than 
water, and the descendants of Dutchmen range themselves 
together. 

The day will come, doubtless, when it will not be for- 
gotten that Mr. Kruger has mishandled his tried friends, 
as well as his suspected foes. During the three years that 
succeeded the Raid, men who stood by him (possibly 
against their consciences) in the trial of the Reformers, 
fell out of his favor, and were insulted and discarded by 
him. 

I have said nothing of his Hollanders, who were very 
unpopular in his Republic. To them were given the rich- 
est concessions and the best offices. Finding that his 
Boer cattle-raisers were for the most part incapable of 
strengthening his hands for the task of government, he 
imported from Holland and Germany (principally from 
the former) a class of adventurers whom he enriched and 
patronized. 

As an illustration of the want of appreciation of the con- 
dition of the world beyond the frontiers of the Transvaal 
among the farmers of the veldt, we are told that in a re- 
mote part of the Republic, not long before the war began, 
a resolution was unanimously passed, and forwarded to the 
Government, urging an immediate invasion of England. 

But indeed how should these people have gained know- 
ledge? Their language cuts them off from the literature 
of other nations. They cannot even read Dutch ; they 
have no literature of their own. They are neither led nor 
misled by the press, for very few newspapers are read among 
them. Their only book is the Bible, and the part of the 
Bible that most appeals to them chronicles the wars of 
God's chosen people, the Jews. 

"A number of worthy people are still disposed to excuse 
many things in the Transvaal because of the extreme provoca- 
tion given by the Jameson Raid. The restrictions upon Eng- 
lish education are considered to be 'not unnatural when one 
remembers the violent attempt to swamp the Dutch.' The 



THE BOER WAR 383 

excessive armaments are held to be 'entirely justifiable, con- 
sidering what has happened.' The building of forts is ' an 
ordinary precaution.' The prohibiting of public meetings is 
'quite wrong, of course, but can you wonder at it?' Many 
of these worthy people will no doubt learn, with pained sur- 
prise, that all these things were among the causes which led to 
the Reform Movement of 1895-6, and are not the consequences 
of that movement, as they erroneously suppose." ^ 

But although there were few newspapers or periodicals in 
the veldt, there were plenty of travelling agents, sent out to 
stir up sympathy, and spread misinformation among fami- 
lies who dwelt remote from towns or villages. 

There is no evidence that the English Government had 
any intention of interfering with the internal affairs — the 
independence, so-called — of the South African Republic, 
any further than that it was endeavoring to negotiate for 
such legislation as would protect its citizens, just as it might 
have done with the government of any friendly power.^ 

Naturally the English Government was irritated by the 
evident intention of President Kruger to seek alliance (in 
spite of the Conventions) with the German Emperor ; and 
also by the denial of all rights, social or political, to men 
who represented in the Transvaal the interests of English- 
men who had invested millions in what, but for their enter- 
prise, would have been rocky, hilly, unproductive lands, 
and lastly by persistent attempts to excite restlessness in 
Natal and Cape Colony. The policy of obstructing high- 
roads between the Transvaal and Cape Colony to promote 
the interest of railways that had obtained " concessions " 
from the Transvaal Government, was also very irritating, 
to say nothing of the opposition, easy to be foreseen, when 

1 " The Transvaal from Within," by J. P. Fitzpatrick. 

2 I remember when the English Government remonstrated with 
that of the United States about the treatment of colored sailors, 
natives of English West Indian islands, who when their ships put 
into South Carolina ports were imprisoned until the ship sailed. A 
difficulty arose because the English Government had no diplomatic 
relations with the Governor of South Carolina, and the President of 
the United States had no power to interfere with its local laws. The 
matter was somehow amicably adjusted. 



384 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the project of a Cape to Cairo Railroad should be put in 
operation. 

For the consideration of these matters of dispute, a con- 
ference was held in March, 1899, at Bloemfontein between 
Sir Alfred Milner, the English High Commissioner for South 
Africa, and President Kruger. 

After some pressure, the President consented to this 
meeting, in the hope, it is hardly uncharitable to think, 
of getting something for nothing. He gave nothing. He 
got nothing, however. 

All through the summer of 1899, when the relations of 
England with the Transvaal seemed to be growing more 
and more strained, the English Government was urged to 
send troops to Cape Colony and Natal, to keep the Dutch 
Afrikander population quiet, and to reassure the loyalists 
who looked to England for protection, as well as to be 
prepared for any eventuality. But the Government would 
not send any large number of troops to South Africa ; it 
still had faith in the resources of diplomacy. It feared 
to excite war feeling in the Transvaal by premature military 
preparations, and, as loyalists in South Africa have since 
bitterly complained, it was not the first time that the 
English record in their land told of loyalists abandoned, 
rights ignored, duties neglected, and pledges forgotten. 
It was not the first time that England, in that part of her 
empire, had, in a frenzy of philanthropic feeling, abandoned 
her own. 

The investigation by the English Parliament into the 
Jameson Raid was very much resented by inhabitants of 
the South African Republic and by their sympathizers; 
but it supplied Mr. Kruger with a hint that Parliamentary 
investigations might be so managed as to produce no 
results. He therefore yielded to pressure, and consented 
that the Volksraad should appoint an Industrial Com- 
mission, to inquire into the grievances of the Johannes- 
burghers, whose existence he before that had repeatedly 
ignored. 

The result of the investigation by the Industrial Com- 



THE BOER WAR 385 

mission was wholly unsatisfactory to Mr. Kruger. The 
commission did its work most carefully. Its proceedings 
were conducted in a liberal spirit, but when the Report 
was sent into the Raad, there was a violent scene in the 
Chamber. The President openly and vehemently accused 
one of his supporters, Mr. Schalk Burger, of being a traitor, 
for signing such a report. The work of the Industrial 
Commission was set aside, and another more pliant com- 
mission was appointed. 

Could the war have been postponed a year or two, it 
is probable that there must have been a reaction, for the 
President and his home policy were growing unpopular. 
But Mr. Chamberlain's reiteration of the word " suzerainty " 
was like a lighted match applied to dry wood piled to 
make a fire. 

I have said nothing about the grievance of the monopo- 
lies, especially the monopoly of dynamite, by which the 
price to the mining companies was raised nearly two hun- 
dred per cent. 

We talk of opposing trusts in this country, but we can 
show nothing like the multiplicity of trusts in the Transvaal. 
By the official list in 1899, there were trusts or monopo- 
lies on dynamite, railroads, spirits, iron, sugar, wool, bricks, 
crockery, paper, candles, soap, calcium carbide, oil, matches, 
cocoa, bottles, jam, etc. 

But enough of these particulars. We will turn to matters 
relating to the war. 

President Kruger, who thoroughly understood the art 
"of how not to do it," and also, as we may have seen 
in his dealings with his prisoners of the Reform Com- 
mittee, how to pose as very magnanimous, assumed, in 
his conference with Sir Alfred Milner, the role of one who 
desires to maintain peace by offering concessions. He 
made repeated propositions regarding an enlargement of 
the franchise so as to include the Uitlanders, each proposi- 
tion being accompanied by conditions that he knew would 
not be acceptable to or accepted by the English Govern- 
ment : for instance, that the Queen should resign her suze- 



386 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

rainty; or that any Uitlander who desired the franchise 
must, after announcing his intention to be naturalized, also 
renounce allegiance to his own government, and wait seven 
years, — or five years, — as the citizen of no country, for the 
naturalization which, still under conditions, would enable 
him to vote in the Republic, — never for President, but 
only for a member of the lower house of the Volksraad. 

Great complaints were made both by President Steyn, in 
the Orange Free State, and by President Kruger, about the 
movement of British troops to South Africa. Alas ! the 
number of troops forwarded was inadequate, and their 
movement far too slow. The loyalists in Natal and Cape 
Colony were disheartened by what they thought showed 
little zeal for their protection. They fathomed Mr. 
Kruger's plans, and knew that they might expect inva- 
sion. On September 25, three weeks before the ultimatum 
had been put forth, — though it was already written, — the 
mobilization and concentration of the Boer forces on the 
Natal frontier had been ordered, Mauser rifles had been 
distributed to all the men and lads able to bear arms in 
the Transvaal, and all, even the youngest, were experienced 
marksmen. 

On October 9, the ultimatum was sent by cable from 
Mr. Kruger to the Colonial Secretary in London, threaten- 
ing to declare war if the terms he had proposed (already 
rejected in Great Britain as impossible and humiliating) 
were not accepted in forty-eight hours. In case of war, 
the Orange Free State, which had no cause of dispute 
with England, would side with the Transvaal, its race- 
interests being identical with those of the burghers in the 
South African Republic. 

When the forty-eight hours had expired, a burgher force 
of eight thousand men, with Creuzot and Krupp guns of 
the newest patterns, which had been held in readiness on 
the Natal frontier, marched over the border and invaded 
British territory. 

When your house is entered forcibly, what can be ex- 
pected but that you should do your best to turn out the 



THE BOER WAR 58/ 

burglar? Unfortunately for England, too much attention 
had been paid to the conscientious scruples of people at 
home, about provoking war by hostile demonstrations. 

The Boer plan was to rush two armies into Natal, and, 
before England could be prepared to resist them, to gain 
possession of the coast and of its fine seaport, Durban. 
The design was very nearly accomplished. 

All those Uitlanders in the Transvaal who would not 
serve in the commando of the district in which they lived 
were turned out of the country. Capetown, early in Oc- 
tober, was full of them. " They were the miners of the 
Rand, — men who floated no companies, held no shares, 
made no fortunes, who had only wanted to make a hun- 
dred pounds, furnish a cottage, and marry a girl. They 
had been turned out of work, packed in cattle-trucks, and 
had come down in the sun by day, and in icy winds by 
night, with empty stomachs." Natives, too, who had 
worked in the mines were driven like cattle, with sjamboks 
(the hide whips of the country) into cattle trucks, more 
densely packed in them than the white men, and sent over 
the border into Cape Colony. 

Strange to say, while negotiations with the English Gov- 
ernment were in progress, many leading Boers sent their 
families to Capetown, that they might be in safety. 

Offers of regiments came in to the English Government 
from the Colonies, and from Indian princes ; Australia, 
Canada, and New Zealand offered contingents. At first 
these offers were not welcomed with enthusiasm. It was 
different after a little time. Volunteer corps were raised 
in South Africa and in Bechuanaland ; preparations were 
made for defending the railroad to Kimberley and Mafeking. 
In Natal the Imperial Mounted Infantry and the Imperial 
Light Horse were recruited, many of their men being 
refugees from Johannesburg. There were twenty-five 
thousand reservists in Great Britain, men who had served 
their time in the army, and had received pensions on con- 
dition of rejoining their colors when wanted. Eighty per 
cent of these men at once flocked to their regiments. All 



388 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

England was wild with enthusiasm. Every little village 
had its personal interest in the Boer war. 

Happily before the war broke out India had despatched 
to Durban twelve thousand of her English troops. The 
Government decided not to employ black soldiers, either 
from Egypt, India, or the West Indies, and refused all offers 
of service from the Basutos or the Zulus. It was a war 
of white men ; and savages or even disciplined colored 
troops were not to be employed. 

Every one in England believed that of course the war 
would be a short one. It stood to reason that the re- 
sources of the British Empire would enable it to crush in 
a few months, if not in a few weeks, a little land-locked 
state that had no more population than a London suburb, 
or the city of Brighton. But the tiny state had much 
money to spend, and made large demands on foreign 
sympathy. Its little armies contained so many foreigners 
that its force amounted, according to the calculation of 
an American miner who took service among the Boers, to 
one hundred thousand fighting men. It had a large corps 
of German volunteers under Colonel Schiel (who, before 
long, was made a prisoner), and these men supplemented 
by modern methods of warfare the native tactics of the 
Boers, which were so well adapted to the country, and 
were so little understood by their English foes when the 
campaign opened. 

The war in Natal was conducted by the Boers under 
General Joubert. The Transvaal people had always felt 
very bitterly the way in which their settlement of Natal, 
after hard fighting with the natives, had been taken out 
of their hands. 

On October 12, the Free Staters entered Natal on the 
southeast, and the Transvaal commandos on its northern 
border, while Cronj^ marched into Bechuanaland, threaten- 
ing Kimberley, Vryburg, and Mafeking. The Boer policy 
was to envelop the whole British force in Natal, while it was 
weak, to cut off railroad communications in its rear, and at the 
same time to separate the troops under General Sir W. Penn 




MAJOR MARCHAND. 



LADYSMITH 389 

Symons, who guarded Glencoe and Dundee, from the main 
body at Ladysmith under General Sir George White. 

Ladysmith is not a very defensible military position, for 
it is surrounded by hills which command the town ; but it 
had been chosen as a depot for stores of food, clothing, and 
ammunition, because it was a railroad junction. 

Its name was given to it out of respect for the wife of Sir 
Harry Smith, who was at one time a most popular admin- 
istrator of the affairs of Natal as Governor of Cape Colony. 
Sir Harry, when a young subaltern, had been at the storming 
of Badajos, and had there succored two Spanish ladies, 
mother and daughter, who put themselves under his protec- 
tion. He found means to send them to England, and sub- 
sequently the young girl became Lady Smith. It is a name 
that will long live in history. 

On Oct. 20, 1899, four thousand men under General 
Sir W. Penn Symons, an officer who had distinguished 
himself in India in the Tirah campaign, were confronted 
in northern Natal by the Boer forces. The British, follow- 
ing the tactics they were accustomed to pursue, charged 
up a rugged hill and gained an advantage ; but they thought 
they were engaged with the whole body of the enemy; 
they did not suspect they were defeating a detachment. 
General Kock, with the main body, coming suddenly up, 
drove back the British column, took a squadron of hussars 
prisoners, and General Symons was wounded mortally. 

Then came the battle of Elandslaagte, in which General 
Kock was mortally wounded, and Colonel Schiel, the Ger- 
man chief officer of artillery, was taken prisoner. French 
and Hamilton, well known to us by their distinguished 
services in the Egyptian campaign, commanded in this 
battle. It was inten ed to be a reconnaissance, and to 
protect the railroad. Elandslaagte is a little village and 
railway station seventeen miles northeast of Ladysmith, 
where some days before, the Boers had blown up a culvert 
and captured a train, thus cutting off" direct communication 
between Ladysmith and Dundee. Reinforcements were 
sent by Sir George White, and soon the reconnoitring party 



390 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

numbered three thousand with eighteen guns. Conspicu- 
ous among them were the Gordon Highlanders. The 
British, as usual, charged up hill, and found the hill was a 
succession of ridges. The Boer guns were admirably 
served, but their shells were very defective. Immense 
boulders lay about everywhere, and behind every boulder 
hid a marksman with his rifle. The Imperial Light Horse 
and the Highlanders did admirable service ; the men ad- 
vanced to the last attack in a downpour of rain which 
soaked even through mackintoshes, and made the artillery 
horses unmanageable. Officers began to fall, but still their 
men pushed on. Ridge after ridge was gained. " The 
air was full of bullets ; they beat on the boulders like a 
million hammers, they tore the turf up like a harrow." 
Finally the. top of the last ridge was reached, and below 
it lay the Boer camp which the Boers were abandoning. 

" It was over, — twelve hours of march, of reconnaissance, 
of waiting, of preparation, and half an hour of attack ! " 

Over the slippery ground among the rocks, men who 
had fought all day now struggled back and forth bearing 
the wounded into the Boer camp by the misty and uncer- 
tain light of one or two rain-blurred lanterns. 

The picture of the " Cruel Side of War " on that night, 
as drawn for us by Steevens, is very pathetic. I should like 
to quote it out of " From Capetown to Ladysmith," but it 
is too long for these pages. 

"The doctor," he says — "our one British doctor — 
toiled on buoyantly. Cutting up the clothes of wounded 
men with scissors, feeling with light firm fingers over 
torn chest or thigh, cunningly slipping round the ban- 
dage, tenderly covering up the crimsoned ruin of strong 
men. Hour by hour, man by man, he toiled on." 

And there is a page following this, which it does the heart 
good to think was written. 

" Mark, and remember for the rest of your lives, that Tommy 
Atkins made no distinction between the wounded enemy and 
his dearest friends. To the men who in the afternoon were 
lying down behind rocks with rifles pointed to kill him, who 



LADYSMITH 39 1 

had shot maybe the comrade of his heart, he gave the last drop 
of his water, the last drop of his making strength, the last drop 
of comfort he could wring out of his gallant soul. ... A few 
men had made a fire in the gnawing damp and cold, and round 
it they sat, with them the unwounded Boer prisoners. For 
themselves, they took the outer ring, and not a word did any 
man say that could mortify the wound of defeat. In the after- 
noon Tommy was a hero, in the evening he was a gentleman. 
. . . Do not forget too, the doctors of the enemy. We found 
and brought to camp their wounded with our own. We found 
Mr. Kock, father of the Boer general, and a member of the 
Transvaal Executive, lying high up on the hill, a massive, 
white-bearded patriarch, in a black frock coat and trousers. 
With simple dignity, and with the right of a dying man to com- 
mand, he said, in his strong voice, ' Take me down the hill and 
lay me in a tent: I am wounded by three bullets.' They 
found, too. Commandant Schiel, the German free-lance, lying 
with a bullet through his thigh, near the two guns that he had 
served so well. There were three field cornets out of four, 
members of the Volksraad, two public prosecutors — Heaven 
only knows who besides ! But their own doctors were among 
them almost as soon as were ours." 

Hardly had the troops from Elandslaagte got back to 
Ladysmith, before the division that had fought at Glencoe 
began to arrive from Dundee. Reinforcements had reached 
the Boers, and Colonel Yule, who had succeeded to the 
command when General Symons was wounded, fearing 
that he might be cut off from the main body at Ladysmith, 
retreated so hastily that he left at Dundee his baggage, 
ammunition, and the wounded, among whom was the dying 
general. The troops marched thirty-two miles without 
rest, in heavy rain and mud, before reaching Ladysmith. 

It was said that President Kruger had prolonged his 
negotiations with Sir Alfred Milner and Mr. Chamberlain 
that the wet season might begin before he declared war. 
Certainly all accounts tell us that every march marched, 
and every fight fought at the opening of the campaign, 
was in a heavy downpour. 

But on the morning of October 31, there was news in 
the camps around Ladysmith of a great disaster. Only 



392 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

two ofificers, besides a subaltern who had just joined his 
regiment, the doctor, and the quartermaster — five officers 
out of twenty-five — assembled in the mess tent for break- 
fast ; they were all that were left of six companies of the 
Royal Irish Fusiliers. And what goes most to a woman's 
heart was, that in the middle of the tent, " tied up in a 
waterproof sheet, were the officers' letters, — the letters of 
wives and mothers that had arrived that morning, seven 
thousand miles from home. The men they had been 
written to were on their way to the prisoners' camp on 
Pretoria race-course." 

I am quoting largely from poor Steevens's last letters, 
in " From Capetown to Ladysmith." They were letters 
he never was able to revise, or to collect for publication, 
for six weeks later he died of enteric fever, in Ladysmith, 
with the roar of the bombardment round his deathbed. 

About a thousand men had on Sunday morning, October 
29, been sent to seize Nicholson's Nek — in other words, 
a mountain pass, through hills seven miles northwest of 
Ladysmith. On their way thither, passing through a de- 
file, they perceived Boers posted on a cliff a thousand feet 
above them. It was not the Boer rifles that disordered 
their ranks, though these were held ready to shoot at the 
right moment, but some large stones slipping down the 
steep side of the cliff upon the line of march, startled 
the ammunition mules, which stampeded. " They dashed 
back on to the battery mules ; there was alarm, confusion, 
shots flying, and the battery mules stampeded also." 

Then the officer in command of the detachment, finding 
himself without guns, and with only the ammunition that 
the men carried about them, would not turn back to Lady- 
smith, but took refuge on a kopje, where he entrenched 
himself as best he might, and waited for reinforcements. 
To defend the position would have needed ten thousand 
men. The thousand on the kopje were attacked at dawn 
by a force of two thousand burghers. Careless of life, and 
seeing their hill surrounded, the Irish, and the few English 
who fought with them, continued to fight till they had 



LADYSMITH 393 

exhausted their ammunition. Some would have fought on 
with bayonets, but the ofificer in charge, unwilhng to sac- 
rifice brave lives to attain no object, waved a white hand- 
kerchief. 

" The best part of a thousand men with all their arms and 
equipments, and four mountain guns, were captured by the 
enemy. The Boers thus had their revenge for Dundee and 
Elandslaagte in war; now they emulated their enemy in 
kindness. As Atkins had tended their wounded, and succored 
their prisoners there, so they tended and succored him here. . . . 
They gave the whole men water out of their own bottles ; they 
gave the wounded the blankets off their own saddles, and 
slept themselves on the veldt. . . . Then they set to singing 
doleful psalms of thanksgiving under the trees, but apparently 
they were not especially elated." 

One of the most notable things in this war, and one 
that made a deep impression upon foreign nations, espe- 
cially on the French, was Sir George White's manly telegram 
to the Home Government on tliis occasion, in which, after 
praising the conduct of the Fusiliers and the Worcester 
Regiment, he took all blame for the disaster on himself, 
saying that he alone had ordered the advance on Nichol- 
son's Nek, having been misled by false information, and 
that he alone was responsible for the defeat. 

The consideration and kindness shown by the Boers to 
their prisoners is the more remarkable because agents paid 
to circulate calumnies had visited distant farms, and taught 
the people to believe that the English would poison every 
wounded prisoner who fell into their hands. ^ This impression 
strongly prevailed among the Transvaal Boers who fought 
the British on the Modder River. Many of these men, when 
taken prisoners, would not at first eat or drink anything 
that was offered them. On one occasion a nurse having 
approached a wounded prisoner to offer him some gruel, 
was received with a brutal kick, and the word, *' Poisoner ! " 

1 It actually made its way to the United States, and was repeated 
to me, claiming authority from Winston Spencer Churchill, by some- 
body who ought to have known better. 



394 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The distrust of the English thus created among the 
ignorant was very great. On one occasion, two war cor- 
respondents, one of them an American, found themselves 
in a valley near Johannesburg, shortly before Lord Roberts 
took possession of that city. They there found an elderly 
Scotch woman, wife of a Boer who was away with his 
commando. She was persuaded that the intention of the 
English was to take all land in the Transvaal, her farm 
included, and give it to the Kaffirs. The war correspondent 
had before heard the same thing said in Cronje's laager. 
"Will they burn all our houses ?" asked one of the 
women who were present. " Not unless you fire from the 
windows on their soldiers; who told you that?" said the 
American's companion. " We read it in the papers," said 
one. Said another, " Our commandant told us so." 

But to return to Ladysmith. The investment and bom- 
bardment began on Nov. 7, 1899, and lasted until Feb. 
28, 1900. 

The Boers had mounted guns on all the neighboring 
hills. The most famous of these guns was Long Tom. 
Nobody knew what his brand was. He was supposed to 
be old, for he used black powder. The besieged were not 
much afraid of him ; they stationed an out-look who was to 
give notice, as soon as he saw Tom's smoke, that they were 
to expect a shell, and there was then always time for men 
in the street to flee into hiding. 

Then there was Fiddling Jimmy, and Pufifing Billy, and 
Silent Susan. Some of the lighter guns had been taken 
from the English at Nicholson's Nek. The range of the 
larger ones was six thousand yards. The garrison at Lady- 
smith had no cannon which could throw a shell so far, 
except two naval guns brought up from Durban, which 
were served by marines of the Royal Navy. 

The Boers were not very enterprising. I think that 
throughout the whole war there was only one instance of 
their having made a rush, or attacked their enemies in 
the open. Their mobility was wonderful. They would tie 
their horses at the foot of a kopje, climb up it, hide them- 



LADYSMITH 395 

selves behind some boulder, or in a trench, build round 
their hiding-place a rampart of loose stones, and then, peer- 
ing round the edge, would aim their rifles at men, as they 
would have done at antelopes or deer. Their system of 
fighting was the same as hunting. English soldiers were 
not used to it. They had never before been stalked by 
their enemies. " But," said Steevens, " we are getting to 
know the Boer's game, and are learning to play it our- 
selves. Our infantry are already nearly as patient and 
cunning as he. Nothing but being shot at will ever teach 
men the use of cover, but they get plenty of that now." 

It was very desirable for the English that a large Boer 
force should be employed in besieging Ladysmith. Had they 
evacuated it, as Colonel Yule's force had evacuated Dundee, 
a very large supply of stores would have fallen into the 
enemy's hands. The Dundee force had strengthened the 
Ladysmith garrison ; but after the disaster at Nicholson's 
Nek, the English made only one or two brilliant sorties. 
They simply endured and held on. 

Life in the besieged town became very dull and dreary. 
Steevens started a newspaper, and filled its columns, in de- 
fault of news, with anecdotes and witticisms. Even the fall 
of the shells caused little excitement, for many of them did 
not explode. The casualties during the first fortnight of 
the bombardment were one white civilian, two natives, a 
horse, two mules, a wagon, and half a dozen houses. Few 
people were injured by the fall of shattered buildings. 
They were living for the most part in sheltered corners, or 
in holes and cellars underground. 

" To do them justice, the Boers did not at first try to do wan- 
ton damage in the town. They fired almost exclusively on the 
batteries, the camps, the balloon, and moving bodies of troops. 
In a day or two these last were snugly protected behind schanzes 
and reverse slopes, and had grown far too cunning to expose 
themselves to much loss." 

The garrison was not entirely shut up in the town ; there 
was some open country round Ladysmith at the foot of the 
hills, which the Boers did not venture to cross, but only 



396 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

shelled. There camps were established (Caesar's camp 
was one of them), and there the cattle and the horses 
for a while found pasture. There was also a hospital camp 
formed at Intombi Spruit, under the shadow of a great 
hill. It was protected by red flags, which the Boers re- 
spected. Alas ! in this hospital many, cured of their wounds, 
or recovering from fever, died simply because there was no 
nourishing food to restore their strength. At one time 
such deaths averaged fifteen a day. 

Meantime, when the English Government had begun to 
realize the magnitude of the task before them, and the 
alarming inadequacy of their preparations, they made Sir 
Redvers Buller commander-in-chief of their armies in 
South Africa. He sailed at once for Capetown, where he 
landed early in November, 1899. He was received, on his 
landing, one account tells us, with enthusiasm ; another 
account (in a French newspaper) says with jeers. 

It was not the first time that Sir Redvers had served in 
Africa ; he had held an important command in the war with 
the Zulus. He had distinguished himself in India, in the 
Tirah campaign. He was known as a hard fighter, a good 
leader of men ; and the country, discouraged by news of 
the fights at Glencoe and Elandslaagte, battles bravely 
contested, but with no results, — for one terminated in a 
hurried retreat, and both ended by shutting up in Lady- 
smith the whole British force intended to defend Natal, — 
hailed the appointment with confidence and expectation. 

Sir Redvers Buller is the son of a country gentleman in 
Devonshire. He has had seven brothers and six sisters. 
He is the second son. One of his brothers, a young man 
of literary and scientific promise, was half eaten up by a 
tiger in India, and died in consequence. 

Sir Redvers Buller came out to South Africa with a 
plan of campaign which, as soon as he landed, he found it 
would be impossible to carry out for want of sufficient 
forces. The plan was to concentrate all his armies on the 
Orange Free State border, and with overwhelming num- 
bers march on Bloemfontein and Pretoria. The plan was 



LADYSMITH 397 

subsequently taken up by Lord Roberts, and has proved 
successful. 

General Buller, before his arrival, calculated that the 
division already in Natal would be amply sufficient for its 
defence. But Natal had a wholly undefended frontier of 
six hundred miles, with the best commandos and their best 
General pouring into it from the Transvaal and the Free 
State, while the force that should have opposed them was 
shut up in Ladysmith. Northern Natal was all in the 
hands of the enemy, and loyalists throughout the colony 
were filled with dismay. They had been promised protec- 
tion by the British Government, " even if it should require 
the whole strength of the Empire." Pieterraaritzburg, 
their capital, and Durban, their seaport, were defended 
only by volunteers, men zealous indeed and brave, but with- 
out military experience ; so that Natal, which had been con- 
sidered sufficiently provided with troops, was, by the time 
the commander-in-chief arrived, the part of South Africa 
that most needed to be reinforced and first claimed his 
attention. 

"The first thing to be done,'' says Winston Spencer Church- 
ill, " was to grapple with the immediate emergencies, and 
await the arrival of the necessary troops to carry on the war on 
an altogether larger scale. Natal was the most acute situation. 
But there were others scarcely less serious and critical. The 
Cape Colony was quivering with rebellion. The forces of the 
Republics were everywhere advancing. Kimberley and Mafe- 
king were isolated. A small British garrison held a dangerous 
position at Orange River bridge. Nearly all the other bridges 
had been seized or destroyed by rebels or invaders. From 
every quarter came clamorings for troops, but most they were 
wanted in Natal." 

Sir Redvers Buller knew the nature of that country. 
He could estimate the advantage that the Boers would 
possess in fighting, among its mountain ranges and its 
rocky kopjes. He at once resolved to go himself to 
Natal. He said : — 



398 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

"■ It was the most difficult business of all. I knew what it 
meant, and that it was doubtful whether we should get through 
to Ladysmith. I had not the nerve to order a subordinate to 
do it. I was the big man. I had to go myself." 

" Before the war opened, every one was wrong about the 
Boers, and the more they thought they knew, the more they 
erred." 

Sir W. Penn Symons, who had been commanding in the 
colony and was presumably best qualified to form an 
opinion, extravagantly underestimated the Boer fighting 
power. But in spite of his confidence and enthusiasm, 
Sir George White and Sir Archibald Hunter, his chief of 
staff, hated to leave an isolated force in Dundee. They 
took counsel in this matter, and were assured that to retire 
from the position would dishearten the colonists in Natal, 
and create great disaffection toward the Government. 

This decision was accepted ; but Sir George White had 
divided his forces with General Symons, retaining half at 
Ladysmith, and sending the other half to Dundee. In the 
end, an orderly evacuation of Dundee would have proved 
far better than a hasty retreat. 

Leaving General Gatacre and Lord Paul Methuen to 
conduct operations on the Orange River, Sir Redvers 
BuUer hastened to Natal, as to the point of danger. There 
is not room in these pages to give an account of the four 
months' siege of Ladysmith, I will tell only what was done 
by General BuUer for its relief. The splendid resistance of 
Ladysmith spoiled General Joubert's plan of campaign. 
It detained his army round that little town four months, 
when in that time it had been his intention to overrun all 
Natal. It kept eighteen thousand men comparatively in- 
active on one spot, when they might have joined the Boers 
on the Orange or Modder River. It was not time lost for 
the cause of the British, though it was full of disappoint- 
ments, nay, even of reverses, while many brave men died 
upon mountain sides, or in hospital from bullets, bombs, 
and shrapnel, more too, from want of nourishment. 

Colenso, on the railroad that connects Ladysmith with 



LADYSMITH 399 

Durban and Pretoria, was taken by the Boers. The last 
armored train that went toward it from Estcourt, was de- 
railed and attacked, one hundred and thirty soldiers who 
were on it were killed or taken prisoners, with the excep- 
tion of twenty-six wounded men piled in the cab, or on the 
tender of the engine, which, by the immense exertions of 
those who cleared the track, escaped and went back to 
Estcourt, to tell the story. 

The account of this incident is most excitingly told by 
Mr. Churchill in his book, " London to Ladysmith, via 
Pretoria," so also is the narrative of his captivity in Pretoria ; 
but I can only commend the book to the perusal of my 
readers, and deny myself the pleasure of here quoting what 
I feel would have increased their interest in these pages. 

Matters had grown daily worse and worse in Natal, up to 
the time of General Buller's arrival. A large force of 
Boers entered the colony through Zululand. The Natal 
farmers were dismayed by the ruin that threatened them, 
and the apparent inability of the British Government to 
protect them. Many followed their racial instincts, and 
took service with the Boers. 

At last, regiments from England and the Colonies ar- 
rived to strengthen the British forces, and to revive the 
spirits of the disheartened loyalists. Soon after Sir Redvers 
reached Natal, he gave battle at Colenso, where he and his 
main army first learned what it was to fight with Boers. 
His previous African experience had been with savages. 
He made a rash frontal attack, and his troops had to retire 
with considerable loss. 

"It was early on Saturday, December 15th, that General 
Buller began the attack. The enemy had been for several weeks 
patiently employed in dragging their guns to advantageous po- 
sitions and in digging extensive intrenchments for their troops. 
The British seem to have been unaware, even when the battle 
began, of the position of some of these intrenchments. On 
the north side of the Tugela the main Boer positions were es- 
tablished on the face of the hills which were crowned by their 
guns. East and west their lines extended in a semi-circle eight 
miles long, not following the windings of the river very closely, 



400 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

but on the east coming pretty close to the British right. Gen- 
eral Barton, with a brigade consisting of four battalions of Eng- 
lish, Welsh, Scotch, and Irish, respectively, was placed here. 
On the extreme left General Hart's brigade, composed mainly 
of Irish regiments, moved westwards for the purpose of reach- 
ing a certain ford known as Bridle Drift. If he could carry 
that, he would turn the enemy's right flank, as General Barton 
on the other wing was intended to turn their left. The entire 
British front measured about six miles. Each wing was sup- 
ported by heavy guns, and in the centre on a little hill where 
stood General Buller and his staff, there were placed the naval 
guns. The battle began about six o'clock in the morning. For 
some time the enemy made no reply to the heavy guns, and few 
of them showed themselves anywhere along the hillsides. At 
last, however, when the British approached the river, especially 
near Colenso, both musketry and heavy guns opened fire. The 
Boers, however, who lined the river banks, remained concealed. 
Tempted, it is not known yet by what idea. Colonel Long, on 
the right, rushed his guns forward beyond his infantry supports. 
He was allowed to approach until within six hundred yards of 
the river banks, when suddenly the Boers sprang to their feet 
and opened a terrific fire with their Mauser rifles. The drivers 
and horses were mowed down, and the guns had to be aban- 
doned. Several thrilling incidents took place in the attempts of 
the riders and officers to recover some of these fieldpieces. 
The only son of Lord Roberts, Lieutenant Roberts, volunteered 
to make the effort ; he took with him several companions, and 
tried to haul one of the big guns away. He was hit, and died 
of his wounds not long after. 

"While this was happening on the right, General Hart's Irish 
regiments were encountering an opposition as sudden and as 
terrific on the far left. In spite of the slaughter which took 
place in their ranks, the Irishmen rushed through tlie river, a 
few of them drowning in the attempt, and occupied the north 
banks. If they could have been effectually supported at this 
time, they might have held their own, but as it was, they were 
compelled to withdraw. These two disasters of course made 
the advance of the centre impossible, and it became evident 
towards noon that the elaborate attack of General Buller had 
ended in disaster. The losses were very serious in men and in 
guns." 1 

1 " South Africa : Its History, Heroes, and Wars," by W. Douglas 
Mackenzie, D.D., assisted by Alfred Stead, 




PRESIDENT KRUGER. 



LADYSMITH 4OI 

Ladysraith stands at the junction of two railroads, one 
leading into the Transvaal, the other into Orange Free 
State. Beyond that, it has no military value ; for it stands 
in the midst of a broken and tangled country abounding in 
positions of great military strength. It must be a good 
deal like Sedan, a town at the bottom of a bowl, as a 
French general said of it. Round the edges of the Lady- 
smith bowl, lay the Boers with their long-range artillery. 

The problem before Sir Redvers BuUer was how to cross 
the Tugela, a river whose banks are low on the south side, 
but very steep upon the north. 

The Boers, fifteen thousand strong, upon this northern 
bank, were carefully concealed in trenches and behind 
boulders. The fords (or drifts) of the river were all de- 
fended ; nothing was left to chance ; the Boers had employed 
all their ingenuity, and were men of " many devices." 

The relief of Ladysmith would clearly be a matter of 
great difficulty, and victory would have to be dearly bought ; 
but what English heart could consent to the abandon- 
ment of Ladysmith, now two months besieged and bom- 
barded? Food and its stores of ammunition were 
dwindling away. Disease was daily increasing, this much 
was known by a system of search-light ; and the strain on 
the garrison, in spite of its pluck and stamina, was a severe 
one. Something would have to be done speedily. 

Preparations were made at last to cross the Tugela at 
Potgieter's Ferry. The force started from its camp at 
Chieveley, nineteen thousand infantry, three thousand cav- 
alry, and sixteen guns. One division was commanded by 
General Clery, the other by Sir Charles Warren. Dun- 
donald had the cavalry under his command. 

The army, as it had to relieve the starving garrison at 
Ladysmith, was hampered by slow-moving ox-carts carry- 
ing supplies. On January eleventh the march began. 
Dundonald crossed the Tugela River, and secured some 
heights upon the other side ; but it was five days before all 
the army crossed the Tugela, the most crooked of streams. 
It is alternately almost dry, and a racing, roaring torrent. 

26 



402 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

It had been raining heavily, and the water rose ; but two 
pontoon bridges were thrown across. At last, after a long 
wait, which Churchill describes as, " battle to-morrow — 
never battle to-day," the army was put across the river; but 
before it, barring the way to Ladysmith, were formidable 
kopjes, all in possession of the enemy ; highest among 
them was Spion Kop or Lookout Mountain, the key to the 
position. 

There were some brilliant little engagements on the 
eighteenth of January ; the cavalry took one hill and made 
twenty-four prisoners. When the ground was searched, 
the victors were moved to pity. " They crowded round 
the wounded men, covering them up from the rain with 
blankets and mackintoshes, propping their heads with 
saddles for pillows, and giving them water and biscuits from 
their own bottles and haversacks." " Here by the rock 
under which he had fought," says Mr. Churchill, " lay the 
Field Cornet, a gray-haired man of over sixty years, with 
fine aquiline features and a short beard. The stony face 
was grimly calm ; but it bore the stamp of unalterable 
resolve, the look of a man who had thought it all out, and 
was certain that his cause was just, and such as a sober 
citizen might give his life for. Nor was I surprised when 
the Boer prisoners told us that he had refused all sugges- 
tions of surrender, and that when his left leg was smashed 
by a bullet, he had continued to load and fire until he bled 
to death. We found him, pale and bloodless, holding his 
wife's letter in his hand." 

Spion Kop was to be attacked the next morning by 
Colonel Woodgate in command ; and Colonel Thorneycroft 
of the Imperial infantry was charged with arrangement of the 
attack and its direction. About three in the afternoon, the 
force had made its way successfully up the southern spur of 
the mountain, over most difificult and dangerous ground, 
and surprised the Boers guarding the entrenchments on the 
summit. Ten soldiers were killed or wounded, and six 
Boers perished by the bayonet. The British then pro- 
ceeded to strengthen their position, but the formation of 



LADYSMITH 403 

the hill was unfavorable for defence. As soon as morning 
broke, a tremendous shell fire burst on them from the 
enemy ; Colonel Woodgate was wounded, and Colonel 
Thorneycroft took the command. That the hill was unten- 
able without cannon, was apparent to all who were up there. 
Mr. Churchill was sent by Colonel Thorneycroft to General 
Warren for orders, or, if it were possible, for guns. Mili- 
tary engineers said it would be utterly impracticable to get 
guns over the rocks to such a height. The naval brigade 
wanted to attempt it. But it was too late. Thorneycroft, 
receiving no orders from his chief, had taken on himself 
the decision. His bravery all day had been conspicuous, 
but, having heard nothing, and expecting no relief, he had 
decided to retire. Slowly and carefully his men moved 
down, and the fight at Spion Kop, which now belongs to 
history, was over. 

I am not qualified to say anything about the great dis- 
putes that arose in military circles about this matter, or 
about General Roberts's despatches to the War Office (for 
by this time he had superseded Buller as commander-in- 
chief). I cannot think he intended these despatches to be 
published. They blamed Buller, Warren, and Thorneycroft. 
" But," adds Mr. Churchill, speaking of the bitter words 
said upon the subject by men who sat in their arm-chairs 
and criticised the men of action, " Englishmen will remem- 
ber that these same generals were after all brave, capable, 
noble gentlemen, trying their best to carry through a task 
which many thought would prove impossible, and which 
was certainly among the hardest ever set to men." ^ 

^ In a speech made at Pietermaritzburg on October 19th, General 
Buller said: '"I found Mafeking and Kimberley beleaguered, and 
the two main avenues across the Free State, Bethulie Bridge and 
Norvals Pont, in the hands of the enemy, with Ladysmith nearly sur- 
rounded. If I had waited for the army, and then advanced on Bloem- 
fontein, it would have been at least twelve weeks before I could have 
exerted any influence on the situation. In that time the Boers would 
have completely overrun and occupied Natal, and what would have 
been the effect of that on Europe and the British people ?' 

" General Buller then proceeded to make the interesting announce- 
ment that Sir Evelyn Wood had wired, asking to be allowed to come 



404 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The army recrossed the Tugela River, and took up its 
pontoon bridges. After waiting a week, General Buller 
addressed the troops. He promised them they should soon 
be in Ladysmith, that he would lead them himself, and 
that he felt now certain he had found the right key to the 
position. It was true that sixteen hundred men had been 
lost in the advance on Spion Kop, but reinforcements were 
coming that would more than make up that number. 

So on February fourteenth, the army again crossed the 
ri\^er,this time at two places, Munger's Drift and Brakfontein. 
An attempt was made to turn the Boer position on Vaal 
Krantz ; but this also was unsuccessful, and the army, in 
good order, retired for the third time to their camp on the 
other side of the river. 

The next attempt made was to turn the Boers' position 
on the left, preliminary to which a high hill, called Monte 
Cristo, was to be taken. Guns on this hill, it was thought, 
would command another passage of the river, and place the 
army on the direct road to Ladysmith. 

Monte Cristo and Cingolo, a hill connected with it, were 
secured without great loss, and the army considered this 
success a triumph, when they were surprised by a change 
of plan. General Buller determined to lead back his men 
again to Potgieter's Ferry and Trichardt's Drift. The 
abandonment of Monte Cristo was not liked in the army. 
" W'e have come down off our high ground," it was said. 
" We have taken all the big guns off the big hills. We are 

out to serve under him. He said he was never so tempted in his life 
to take a man at his word, for he had begun to lool< upon Natal as a 
forlorn hope ; but it would have been cowardly to have let Sir Evelyn 
come to take the risk. 

" ' I knew that if I failed to relieve Ladysmith,' he exclaimed, ' I 
should lose the supreme command. I lost it, and rightly, I think. 
But I had taken on the task, and was bound to see it through to a 
conclusion.' 

" Sir Redvers paid the highest compliments to the loyalty and gal- 
lantry of his troops under the tremendous strain, — a strain, he 
believed, such as no soldiers in the history of the world had ever to 
undergo before." 



LADYSMITH 4O5 

getting ourselves cramped up among these kopjes in the 
valley of the Tugela. It will be like being at the Coliseum, 
and shot at from every row of seats." 

And it was even so. In spite of reckless bravery and 
perseverance, especially on the part of the three Irish regi- 
ments, no road to Ladysmith had been gained. The army 
went back across the river. "Try, try again," must have 
been Sir Redvers BuUer's motto. The fight on Inniskilling 
Hill was superb, but the defence also was magnificent. The 
Irish made their way up the hill, and fought almost face 
to face with the Boers in their intrenchments ; but noth- 
ing, with all their loss of life, had been gained. Two 
colonels, three majors, twenty other officers, and six hun- 
dred men had fallen, out of a force of scarcely twelve 
hundred. 

For the fourth time the army returned to camp on the 
south side of the Tugela, and the plan for occupying Monte 
Cristo — again crossing the river, and endeavoring to turn 
the Boer left, where there were fewer kopjes and more 
open ground — was resumed. In the end it was successful, 
not, however, without five days' furious fighting in what was 
called the Battle of Pieters. The dead and wounded were 
brought off from Inniskilling Hill, the English general, for 
that purpose, having asked an armistice. " But at last 
came that which had been hungered and longed for through 
many weary weeks, which had been thrice foiled and 
which," says Churchill, " was all the more splendid since 
it had been so long delayed — Victory I'' 

The road was open to Ladysmith. The Boers were in 
retreat. 

" ' Did you think we should get through ? ' asked Churchill 
of a Boer prisoner. 

" ' No ; we did not believe it possible.' 

^' ' Did you find our soldiers brave? ' 

" ' They do not care for life.' 

" ' And Ladysmith ? ' 

" ' Ah ! ' and his eye brightened, ' there 's pluck if you like — 
Wonderful ! ' " 



406 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

So at last the often disappointed troops came within 
six miles of Ladysmith. They had, however, no expectation 
of entering it without another action. But the Boers 
had heard of Cronje's peril, if not of his surrender, on 
Majuba Day, and were already retiring. Ladysmith, in- 
formed by her balloon, already knew that help was near. 
The men under General BuUer could see the great white- 
tilted wagons of the Boers moving to the north and west, 
and lastly through their glasses they saw a huge pair of 
shears over Long Tom upon his eminence. He was lifted 
up and taken away. 

To this day it is a mystery, great as how enormous stones 
were placed by the Druids upon cromlechs, or twenty-four 
feet blocks of granite were raised upon the pyramids, 
how the Boers managed to whisk off their artillery. Some 
day, when all is peace again, shall we find great guns buried 
when we are searching for gold mines? 

The "Morning Post" correspondent, riding toward Lady- 
smith with some companions, suddenly received a chal- 
lenge : " Halt ! Who goes there? " " The Ladysmith Relief 
Column," was the answer. " And at once men, tattered and 
emaciated, ran out from trenches hidden in bush and scrub. 
They were ghastly pale and thin, and cheered with feeble 
voices. Some of them even cried. The strong colonial 
horsemen stood up in their stirrups, and gave a full-voiced 
answering cheer, for they then knew that they had reached 
the Ladysmith picket line." 

On March 3, the relieving army made its triumphal 
entry into Ladysmith. 

The streets were lined with the brave men whose defence 
had extorted praise even from their adversaries. " They 
had, so far as possible, improved their looks for the occa- 
sion ; but they were pale and thin and wasp-waisted." 

Sir George White and his staff sat before the Town Hall 
on their skeleton horses, and opposite to them were the 
pipers of the Gordon Highlanders playing tunes of wel- 
come. All the flags in the town were hung out on the 
occasion. 



LA D YSMITH 407 

Sir Redvers BuUer and his staff rode in first, followed 
by his infantry and artillery, the Irish soldiers, what was 
left of them, wearing green in their helmets. All was 
orderly until the Gordon Highlanders began to cheer the 
Dublin Fusiliers, and then the Devons of the relieving 
force coming in sight of the Devons of the garrison, they 
rushed into each other's arms, and cheered and cheered 
and cheered. The last act of the day was the presentation 
to Sir George White of an address of congratulation from 
the civilian inhabitants of Ladysmith, whom he had ruled 
somewhat rigorously during the hard months, of the siege. 

And so all was over ; the Boers had slipped away, and 
the land around the town was thickly dotted with fresh- 
made graves. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE BOER WAR. CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 

"\ 1 THEN war broke out there were only three thousand 
* ^ British troops in Cape Colony ; and had the Boers 
invaded it in force, they might have overrun the country. 
But the Boers are iK)t fond of advancing in the open. 
They preferred to bombard fortified towns. Their strength 
was in their rifles, in them and their artillery and their hills. 
The strength of the English, who had hundreds of miles 
of frontier to defend, and long lines of communication to 
keep open, lay in their numbers. We must also remember 
that the Boers had the advantage of fighting inside a cir- 
cle. They could move easily from point to point along 
their frontier; the British had a long semi-circle to 
defend, and to move through a difficult country to the 
point of danger. 

We are told that what with racial sympathies, and dis- 
trust of English help, the Afrikanders in Cape Colony were 
in a state of unrest and dissatisfaction. Their brothers 
on the veldt knew nothing of the colonial rule of Eng- 
land. Their fathers had told them what it was once, 
and what it was then, they argued, that it must be 
now. That England now dealt liberally with Cape 
Colony they set down to a sense of her own weakness, 
" Many fine men, brave men," says an American writing 
from the Colony, " patriots in all their blindness, are out 
with their sons and brothers dying for the almost barren 
land they love. It is sad, and not an Englishman but 
feels it." ^ 

1 Unless it be some of the Cape Loyalists who, waiting on Sir 
Alfred Milner, called the Boers " cowardly scoundrels," and were 
reproved by Sir Alfred, who viewed them very differently. 



THE BOER WAR 409 

Again : " Most of the Boer farmer soldiers have been told 
and believe beyond question of a doubt, that should the 
English triumph, their homes will be taken, and they them- 
selves held prisoners or hanged." 

The military plan at first laid down was, as I have said 
in the previous chapter, as soon as reinforcements should 
arrive from England, to advance with an overwhelming 
force on Bloemfontein and Pretoria, leaving Ladysmith, 
Kimberley, and Mafeking for a time to defend themselves ; 
but such strong feeling was excited in England against de- 
lay in relieving the besieged garrisons, that this plan was 
postponed. 

We have seen how a cavalry force was detached for 
operations in Natal, and Lord Methuen moved westward 
to attempt the relief of Kimberley ; while a very small body 
of men under General Gatacre was left on the frontier of 
the Orange Free State on Orange River, where the whole 
British force should have been concentrated. 

It is too early to write a military history of this war, and 
a woman certainly is not competent to do it. Meantime, 
an account of what was done in October, November, and 
December, 1899, and January and February of 1900, can 
be written, as it were, only in patches. No bird's-eye view 
can be taken of the miHtary operations, the attention is 
called to so many points at once. 

We know what was happening in Natal from November 
until March. Kimberley had been prepared to stand a 
siege by the exertions of Colonel Kekewich, its military 
commander, an officer of engineers who had been sent there 
before the war broke out to put it into a state of defence. 
Mr. Cecil Rhodes at the first outbreak of hostilities re- 
paired to the Diamond Mines. He paid and equipped, 
at his own expense, a body of volunteers for the town's 
defence ; he established a foundry which turned out ser- 
viceable guns, and he provided for the wants of a large 
population of native miners, who repaid him by throwing 
up round the town embankments of dry earth dug from 
the mines. But besides all this, he importunately urged 



410 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the home government to send immediate rehef to Kimber- 
ley, and he quarrelled with the military commander. 

The force with which Lord Methuen hoped to relieve 
Kimberley before Lord Roberts joined the army was made 
up of picked men : part of the Highland Brigade, the Royal 
Guards, an Irish brigade, a naval brigade with long-range 
guns, a few experienced colonial scouts, light cavalry, and 
three field batteries. But first it was needful it should 
cross the Modder River. 

The force did not move until November 23, when it ad- 
vanced on the Boers at Belmont, and gained a complete 
victory. The English at Belmont lost many officers, 
though orders had been given that they should remove all 
distinctive marks from their uniforms. But as English 
officers always lead their men, it was easy for the Boers to 
distinguish them. 

When news of the victory at Belmont reached London, 
people were disposed to blame the War Office for having 
taken the Boer dispute too seriously. On all sides it was 
said that with such victories as Belmont, Glencoe, and 
Elandslaagte, the war would be over in three weeks. 

Then came a week of reverses, and the hearts of the peo- 
ple were stirred. Business was suspended in the city. "The 
very next day the reserve lists of four regiments were filled. 
Men were wanted, and from everywhere they came. 
Volunteers pleaded to be taken ; the militia received their 
orders with satisfaction. The heart of the nation was 
stirred." 

On November 25, Lord Methuen again fought the enemy 
at Gras Pan ; both sides suffered severe loss, but the English 
again won. 

The Boers being on the north side of the Modder River, 
the British began to prepare for crossing it on Friday, De- 
cember 8. The railroad bridge had been destroyed, and 
the soldiers had to wade the river at the Drift. A strong 
reconnaissance was made, but all seemed quiet on the 
Boer side of the Modder. The naval gun threw a {q.\s 
shells, but failed to meet any response. The impression 



THE BOER WAR 4I I 

was that the Boers had moved off toward Kimberley, which 
was thirty-two miles away, and its searchUght could be seen 
signalling after dark to the relieving force. 

Full of hope, little knowing what was before them, Lord 
Methuen's men marched into the river in a heavy down- 
pour of rain, for the wet weather of the winter had set in. 
Before dawn, the march began \ in the rain and the dark- 
ness the main body struggled through the Drift, and there 
met wounded Highlanders of an advanced party who had 
crossed before them. They had found the Boers waiting 
for them on a high ridge, terraced with stone parapets, and 
furrowed with trenches. " Our whole brigade is destroyed. 
Our officers are all killed," was the news the wounded Scots 
gave the advancing column. They were some of the very 
bravest men in the English army : the Black Watch and 
the Seaforths. They had been led by Lord Wauchope, the 
colonel and the clansman whom they loved. He had re- 
monstrated with Lord Methuen on the task that had been 
assigned his men, telling him that they would simply throw 
away their lives, for that success would be impossible. 
Lord Methuen only repeated that he must obey orders. 
Lord Wauchope led his men to their death and to his own. 
His dying words were, " Do not blame me, men ; the fault 
is not mine," and so expired. 

The brigade had been marching forward, and thought 
themselves at least a thousand yards from the enemy, when 
suddenly, on front and flank, came a furious enfilading fire. 
The Black Watch, which led the van, lost its colonel, lieu- 
tenant-colonel, its majors, and two captains. Its men went 
down in heaps. The Seaforths, who were behind them, 
suffered almost as severely. " No flesh or blood," says 
one who was in the battle, " could have stood the effect of 
such a sudden death-dealing surprise." 

What remained of the Highland Brigade was reformed 
by its surviving officers, and again and again led to the 
attack ; but they fought an invisible enemy ; many men 
present at the fight tell us that that day they never saw a 
Boer. But the Dutchmen must have suffered terribly from 



412 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

the British lyddite shells, which fell into their camp behind 
the kopje. " Never," says the eye-witness I have quoted, 
" did any trained troops that wore a uniform stand such a 
terrible bombardment as these motley Dutch farmers did 
this day ; and on the British part, I doubt if any troops 
ever before had to face such a problem, — fighting an obsti- 
nate brave foe, keen-sighted, determined, and invisible." 

The Boers had no artillery in this fight, though some guns 
were brought up at the close of the day. The sky had 
cleared ; the sun was hot ; the men who were not killed suf- 
fered terribly for want of water. At last the battle ended ; 
the English forces moved back two miles from their for- 
mer advanced position ; it only remained to succor the 
wounded and bury the dead. One general, fifty-six offi- 
cers, and eight hundred men had fallen before the steady 
rifle-fire of some thousands of invisible men concealed in 
trenches. "It is useless," writes the eye-witness, " to use 
brave men as if bravery were their only weapon. A half- 
grown lad filled with the spirit of a fighting ancestry, with 
his cheek laid close to the butt of a Mauser rifle, lying in- 
trenched and invisible, is as good as five brave Highlanders 
advancing out of the open. . . . The Boer knows his 
ground, and his style of fighting suits it. The methods of 
Quatre Bras and Waterloo belong to a bygone age." 

The day before the battle of Magersfontein General 
Gatacre attacked Colesburg, a town in Cape Colony on the 
railroad, held by the Boers, and met with a serious repulse. 

On December i8, in the midst of Lord Roberts's afflic- 
tion for the loss of his only son, the English Government 
asked him to take the chief command in South Africa. It 
was like their request to Sir Charles Napier in a similar 
emergency in India in 1848, when the Duke of Wellington 
said to him, " Either you must go or I." 

Lord Roberts consented upon two conditions. His 
plans were not to be overruled by the War Office, and his 
chief of staff" was to be Lord Kitchener. 

On December 27, 1899, after a quick passage, the two 
generals landed at Capetown. Lord Roberts went at once 



THE BOER WAR 413 

to the front. Lord Kitchener remained at Capetown to 
superintend the transport system, which, it may be said 
en passant, on the authority of an American eye-witness, 
was throughout this war admirable. But how Lord Kitch- 
ener must have wished for the help of Father Nile, 
instead of that of a railroad continually threatened by the 
enemy, and inadequate to the demands made on it ; for it 
had but one track most of the way. 

During the week from December 10 to December 15, 
the British had suffered three serious repulses, — General 
Gatacre's at Colesberg, General Methuen's at Magersfon- 
tein, and General Buller's at Colenso. During the rest of 
the month there was a pause, the Boers continuing to shell 
General Methuen's camp across the Modder River. 

My readers, possibly, if they have not modern maps at 
hand, may be glad to take advantage of this pause to learn 
something about South African geography. 

On the south is Cape Colony, bounded on the north by the 
Orange River, which separates it from what was the Orange 
Free State. To the east is a cluster of native states, 
under English protection, Basutoland, Pondoland, and 
Griqualand East. North of these states, and divided from 
Orange Free State and the Transvaal by the Drakenberg 
Mountains, is Natal, with its capital Pietermaritzburg, and 
its seaport Durban. Adjoining Natal on the northeast in 
Zululand, under British protection, and north of Zululand is 
Swaziland, which, by persevering importunity, the Boers 
induced the British Government in 1894 to place under 
their protection. 

Orange Free State (now Orange River Colony) is 
divided from Cape Colony by the Orange River, the only 
river of any consequence in Africa south of the Zambezi. 
On the north, Orange Free State is separated from the 
Transvaal, or South African Republic, by the river Vaal. 
The Transvaal on the north is divided from Rhodesia by 
the river Limpopo. 

To the west of the Transvaal and Orange Free State lies 
a strip of country called a British protectorate. It con- 



414 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

sists of Griqualand West and Bechuanaland. In Griqua- 
land West, just beyond the border of the Orange Free State, 
are the Diamond Mines of Kimberley. The railroad from 
Capetown to Bulawayo, the capital of Rhodesia, runs 
through Griqualand West and Bechuanaland. On it are 
Kimberley, Vryburg, and Mafeking. West of Griqualand 
and Bechuanaland (both British protectorates) lies German 
West Africa. 

Up to the first of January, 1900, the war had not entered 
the enemy's country. Natal was British ; Kimberley, Bel- 
mont, Gras Pan were all in British territory ; so was Coles- 
berg in Cape Colony, on the south side of the Orange 
River. 

By the twelfth of February this situation was changed. 
Lord Roberts had come to the front, and crossed into Orange 
Free State over the Riet River. BuUer was making his 
slow advance to Ladysmith over the Tugela ; French, with 
his cavalry, had been detached from Buller's army, and had 
driven the Boers out of Colesberg ; he then made a wide 
detour to the west, and on February 16, he and his horsemen 
entered Kimberley. The Boers under General Cronj^ aban- 
doned their entrenchments on the Modder River, and 
moved towards Bloemfontein, the capital of Orange Free 
State, having reason to believe that Lord Roberts would 
move in that direction. He had, indeed, crossed the Riet 
River, which forms a junction with the Modder and then 
empties into the Vaal ; he then occupied Jacobsdal in the 
Orange Free State. 

Lord Methuen's army had been resting in its camp on 
the Modder River, the Boers shelling it from time to time, 
but never daring to attack it, hand to hand fighting not 
being what suited them. Supplies were brought up daily 
by railroad from Capetown. The men engaged in foot- 
ball ; the bands played in the evening ; the searchlight at 
Kimberley made signals, and the men said : " It is Brother 
Cecil talking to Brother Frank," for Colonel Francis Rhodes 
(late of the Reform Committee in Johannesburg) was now 
head of the signalling department. 



THE BOER WAR 



415 



Great had been the joy in England over the relief of 
Kimberley, which took place almost simultaneously with that 
of Ladysmith. Kimberley was entered by General French 
on February 16, Ladysmith by Lord Dundonald on Febru- 
ary 28, as I have said. 

The entrance of French and his horsemen on February 
16 was soon followed by that of abundant supplies; but 
the town showed little or no effect of bombardment, nor 
did the people appear to have suffered greatly. The horses 
— those not eaten — were very thin ; but horseflesh had 
become a very favorite food among the Kafifirs, when pre- 
pared similarly to what we in America call hogshead cheese. 
General Roberts had moved on Jacobsdal, where he waited 
for remounts, and for large bodies of colonial troops who 
were to join him ; while Generals French and Kitchener were 
in pursuit of Cronj^, who, unable to reach Bloemfontein, had 
taken refuge at Koodoesrand Drift, thirty-two miles north of 
Kimberley. 

I must pause here a moment to tell how Lord Roberts 
appeared to Mr. James Barnes, the correspondent of the 
" Outlook," who will forgive me, I am sure, for extracting 
this passage from his letters,^ as well as for having quoted 
a few other passages. 

" Lord Roberts was seated in his tent upon the dusty veldt, 
on a little chair that folded up like a iishing-rod. There was 
the man of Kandahar! Yet he was so simple, so good to look 
at, so kindly, so different from what I had expected, that I had 
to learn him all over again on the spot, as it were. He was not 
old; he was not young; he was not middle-aged. His firm 
mouth with its downward lines was neither hard nor soft, but 
purposeful. Beneath the honest breadth of brow his grey eyes 
were keen, frank, and youthful, but they suggested that they 
had seen much. He was small in stature, but he did not sug- 
gest lack of inches. He had the well-knit, compact figure of 
the man who rides across country. Manner he had none. He 
had the glamour of absolute self-forgetfulness that marks the 

1 The " Outlook " has copyrighted these letters, and I presume 
they will be published in book form, in which case I earnestly com- 
mend them to the perusal of my readers. 



4l6 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

truly oreat. At a glance you trusted him, but when he spoke 
you loved him. And it is these qualities together that make 
men lead other men to do big deeds. ... I knew that every 
man, from brigadier to private, felt the influence of his mere 
presence with the army." 

Before Lord Roberts arrived to take command, a detach- 
ment of Highlanders had gone from Lord Methuen's camp 
on Modder River to Koodoesbur-g. They suffered much 
from thirst and heat, and accomplished nothing. They lost, 
however, several fine officers, for they fought three days 
without any very apparent object, the Boers lying behind 
boulders from which their marksmen picked off officers at 
twelve hundred yards. 

The Transvaal troops, set free from besieging Ladysmith, 
hurried westward to relieve Cronj^, but were for the most 
part captured on their way. 

About the same time in February that the Boers withdrew 
from the Tugela River and left General BuUer the way 
open to Ladysmith, Lord Roberts was pushing on to Paarde- 
burg or Koodoesrand Drift, where Cronj6 and his men had 
formed a laager, digging holes in the river bank where they 
might hide, untouched by lyddite shells. There they waited, 
vainly hoping that reinforcements from Natal would arrive. 
These reinforcements, however, were intercepted by detach- 
ments from Lord Roberts's army. 

Lord Kitchener was in command of the force that sur- 
rounded the laager of Cronje, but Lord Roberts came from 
Jacobsdal to join him, and, by February 7, the British occu- 
pied a kopje within a mile of the besieged laager. Lord 
Kitchener offered free passes to women and children before 
he began his bombardment ; but this General Cronj^ refused. 
His hope was that reinforcements would reach him before 
he should be obliged to give in. He had, however, to capi- 
tulate unconditionally, and did so on February 27, Majuba 
Day; the next day, February 28, supplies were poured into 
Kimberley. 

Lord Roberts's intended movement on Bloemfontein had 
been for a few days interrupted by the cavalry movement of 



THE BOER WAR 417 

Generals French and Macdonald of the Highland Brigade. 
They drove Cronj^'s army into the laager, which was de- 
fended on one side by the river, on the other by high hills. 
The Boers had suffered no loss of men during the pro- 
tracted and continuous artillery fire of the English, who 
mounted guns upon the captured kopje ; but there seemed 
no chance for them to get away, — no hope in further 
resistance. 

At the end of the first day's battle, when his forces were 
drawn around Cronje's camp, Lord Kitchener, who had 
been in command of the pursuing force, asked the Boer 
commander if he would not surrender so as to avoid useless 
bloodshed. Cronj^ replied that he still had men and am- 
munition, and saw no reason for surrendering. But after 
the next day's bombardment, he asked an armistice to bury 
his dead. This was refused, and Cronje then sent word 
that if the English were so inhuman, no course was open to 
him but to surrender. Lord Kitchener came out to meet 
him, but was met instead by a messenger who said that the 
general had made no proposal to surrender, but would fight 
until he died. The batteries, therefore, resumed their fire. 

Lord Kitchener the next day resigned his command to 
Lord Roberts, who had come from the main body of his 
army at Jacobsdal. 

On February 26, the Canadian contingent advanced a 
trench almost up to those held by the enemy. 

The next morning General Cronj^ sent a letter to Lord 
Roberts saying that he surrendered unconditionally. He 
had secured time, during which part of the force he had 
with him in the laager had, as Tommy Atkins expressed it, 
"slipped out as usual by the back door." 

Lord Roberts thought it best to require the Boer general 
to come in person to his camp, and make the surrender. 
In all other respects General Cronj^ was treated with cour- 
tesy and consideration. 

The general, his wife, his son, and his chief of staff were 
sent to St. Helena. The prisoners, only forty-five hundred 
in number, — as a large party had efTected their escape 

27 



41 8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

northward, — were sent to Capetown, where they were at 
first confined in a prison camp ; but they made such per- 
sistent efforts to effect their escape, by burrowing under its 
enclosure, that they were removed to prison ships, where 
typhoid fever soon broke out among them. Then some 
were sent to St. Helena, and some to a prison camp in the 
Island of Ceylon, " where every prospect pleases," but which 
they are not likely to enjoy. General Cronj^, his wife, 
his son, and General Albrecht were sent to St. Helena in 
an American passenger-ship. The captain wrote an inter- 
esting account about his passage and his passengers, — how 
he amused them with a phonograph ; their first induction 
into the mysteries of nineteenth-century scientific progress 
and civilization. 

Cronj^'s laager had been for some days indefensible. A 
small party of civilians, who entered it in advance of the 
troops, were at once surrounded by Boers asking all sorts 
of questions. Most of them were eager to shake hands ; 
though some, like General Albrecht, were still defiant. 

The men from the Orange Free State, which had had no 
quarrel with England, professed themselves sick of the war ; 
but what seemed to hurt them most was that the surrender 
had been made upon Majuba Day. 

The laager, on being entered, was foul with the stench of 
dead horses. The Boers were sheltered in holes made in 
the river bank. 

" Poor people," said the correspondents who rode into 
their laager, " they were hungry, dirty, and sick of war." 

Albrecht, the German artillery ofificer, did not refrain from 
blaming his commander most bitterly. The Boers, con- 
trary to the laws of war, threw their guns, after surrender, 
into the river. The English subsequently recovered them. 

General Cronj^, some thought, behaved with dignity when 
he met Field Marshal Roberts, but others thought he was 
surly and bad-mannered. Albrecht, the German, was rude 
and unconciliatory to his captors. The majority of the 
prisoners, however, seemed glad by any means to have got 
out of that horrible laager. Tommy Atkins divided his 



THE BOER WAR 419 

rations with them before any could be issued for their re- 
lief, and they crossed the river, for the most part in good 
spirits. 

Here as elsewhere there seems no doubt that the Boers 
used explosive bullets. Whole cases of them were captured 
in Natal, and they made frightful wounds ; while men hit by 
Mauser bullets rejcovered quickly. After the surrender, the 
English troops regained their confidence. Their general 
returned to his camp at Jacobsdal, and made ready to take 
the road to Bloemfontein. 

Lord Roberts entered Bloemfontein on the 13th of 
March, 1900. His occupation of the capital of the Free 
State was unopposed ; as soon as he appeared before the 
city, a deputation met him, headed by Mr. Frazer, a Scotch 
loyalist, who had not gone into exile. He had been the 
political opponent of President Steyn, who, on the approach 
of the British, had moved his capital to Kroonstadt, about 
one hundred and twenty miles north of Bloemfontein. 
Pretoria is about two hundred and seventy miles from the 
Orange Free State capital. Immense quantities of stores 
and ammunition were laid up there, and it was defended 
by strong forts, armed with the most modern guns. Presi- 
dent Kruger had predicted that the English could not take 
Pretoria without losing ten thousand men. Most people 
believed this, for the hilly nature of the country round the 
city seemed to make it capable of a long defence. There 
were British forces at all the railroad crossings of the 
Orange River, and direct communication between Cape- 
town and Bloemfontein. 

When the British forces were on their march to the capi- 
tal of the Free State, the two Presidents, Steyn and Kruger, 
sent a cablegram to Lord Salisbury, making peace proposals. 

The despatch began by a positive assurance that the two 
Republics had no intention or design of setting up a claim 
to rule over all South Africa. They then, in defiance of 
facts, — ignoring that the Republics had been aggressors 
and invaders, — went on to say : " This war was under- 
taken solely as a defensive measure, to maintain the threat- 



420 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

ened independence of the South African Republic, and is 
only continued in order to secure and maintain the incon- 
testable independence of both Republics as sovereign, inter- 
national States, and to obtain the assurance that those of 
her Majesty's subjects who have taken part with us in this 
war shall suffer no harm whatever in person or property." 
Then, after expressing a firm conviction that Heaven was 
on their side, the Presidents added the considerate assur- 
ance that this declaration would have been made sooner, 
had it not been for the fact that until very recently all the 
advantages of the war had been on the Boers' side, where- 
fore they did not wish to " hurt the feelings and honor of 
the British people," by addressing them as if they considered 
themselves their conquerors. 

Naturally, Lord Salisbury's reply was to lay the whole 
responsibility for the war on the Boer Government, saying 
that '' suddenly, at two days' notice, the South African Re- 
public, after issuing an insulting ultimatum, declared war 
upon her Majesty ; and the Orange Free State, with whom 
there had not even been any discussion, took a similar step. 
Her Majesty's dominions were immediately invaded by 
the two Republics. Siege was laid to three towns within 
the British frontier, a large portion of two colonies was 
overrun, with great destruction of property and life, and the 
Republics had claimed to treat the inhabitants of extensive 
portions of her Majesty's dominions as if their country had 
been annexed to one or the other of them." ^ 

The reply concluded by saying : " In view of the use to 
which the Republics have put the position which was 
given them, and the calamities their unprovoked attack has 
inflicted on her Majesty's dominions, her Majesty's Gov- 
ernment can only answer your Honor's telegram by saying 
that they are not prepared to assent to the independence 
either of the South African Republic, or of the Orange Free 
State." 

It is needless to say that the whole British Empire, with 

1 North Natal to the Transvaal ; Northern Cape Colony to Orange 
Free State. 




GENERAL JOUBERT. 



THE BOER WAR 42 1 

the exception of a few political factions, was of one mind 
on this subject with Lord Salisbury and his government. 

An American newspaper of wide circulation, and always 
of moderate views, thus comments on the answer of Lord 
Salisbury : — 

" The Boers having, with more audacity than prudence, ap- 
pealed to war to arbitrate the difference between the Transvaal 
and Great Britain, must accept the result. . . . The history of the 
past half-century, culminating in this campaign, makes it clear 
that, in the interests of peace, either Great Britain must with- 
draw from South Africa altogether and recognize the indepen- 
dence of a South African federated Republic, or she must bring 
all South Africa under her flag, as a colony of the British Em- 
pire. It is now scarcely doubtful that the latter will be the 
result ; nor is it doubtful to us that this result will be in the in- 
terest of hberty, justice, and civilization throughout South 
Africa, including the Transvaal itself." ^ 

After a considerable rest to bring up reinforcements, 
largely made up of colonial regiments and remounts, which 
were greatly needed, the army began to advance toward 
the Vaal River with its miles of wagons and thousands of 
mules and oxen under charge of black Kaffir drivers. 

And here I may quote a few words from Mr. Barnes, 
concerning transport service in this war, which service was 
superintended by Lord Kitchener : — 

" There were officers, soldierlike in appearance, of warlike 
ancestry and instincts, who kept books and signed vouchers, 
who dealt out sugar and tea, tinned beef and biscuits, to the 
footsore fighters, and oats and pressed hay to the tired, tuckered- 
out horses. There is no nation in the world that might not 
learn from the Army Service Corps of Great Britain how to 
transport supplies and to feed multitudes." 

It is true that later Mr. Burdett-Coutts found occasion to 
blame the Transport Service for a lack of medical supplies ; 
but a committee of investigation acquitted the service of 
blame. It had no Nile, and no near seaports to assist its 
transportation ; only hundreds of miles of railroad track, 
1 "The Outlook," March 24, 1900. 



422 LAS7' YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

threatened constantly by the enemy, and supplemented by 
the service of ox-wagons. 

Meantime while the British rested in the capital of 
the Orange Free State, the active General de Wet con- 
ducted operations on his own account on the borders of 
the Orange River south of the British Army. Across Orange 
Free State the British marched with little opposition, the 
Boers escaping " through the back door," whenever they 
were expected to make a stand. Many Free Staters 
gave up their arms, and returned joyfully to their farms, 
to be worried and harassed, however, by De Wet, who 
remained in the rear of the British force to be a thorn in 
the side of the conquerors for months after. In the towns 
through which the army passed, the inhabitants displayed 
everything they possessed that would pass for British 
colors. All the railroad bridges had been blown up, for 
the Boers had in their service an Irishman very skilful at that 
work. There were few ordinary bridges, for the custom 
of the country was to trust to drifts, when their ox-teams 
had to cross a river. 

At last the army was across the Vaal, and within eight miles 
of Johannesburg. It was a matter of much discussion 
whether or not the Boers, if they evacuated that city, 
would blow up the mines. They had threatened to do 
so ; but probably, on second thoughts, the mines and 
machinery were spared that they might be productive of 
wealth to Boers, when they should have got rid of the 
capitalists. 

On the British approach, three trains were sent out of 
Johannesburg toward Pretoria. Ian Hamilton's cavalry 
were despatched along the railroad to cut the line, if 
possible, or to obstruct their passage. 

On the morning of July 15 advanced parties of cor- 
respondents entered Johannesburg. The city had surren- 
dered, though preparations had not been made for hoisting 
the Union Jack on the entrance of British troops into the 
town. A daily paper issued that morning made, however, 
no mention of the surrender, but had filled its columns 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 423 

with fictitious accounts of how General French, General 
Horton, and General Hamilton had been foiled in their 
attempts to enter the city. The advanced correspondents 
proved to be a little "too previous," — arrangements 
with Lord Roberts not having been completed. It was 
still an enemy's town with the Vierkleur flag flying, but 
everything was quiet. Daily life — even the life of " wash- 
ing day" — seemed to be going on as usual. 

The Boer police commandant, De Krause, had kept 
excellent order. The Rand Police had faithfully guarded 
the mines of the various companies since the unenlisted 
Uitlanders had been packed into trucks and forcibly 
despatched out of the country. 

When Lord Roberts and his staff appeared, there was a 
shout, accompanied by some groans and hisses ; but these 
last were overpowered when, on the Vierkleur coming down 
from its flag-staff, the Union Jack was raised, and Lord 
Roberts himself, bare-headed, led the cheering. Then the 
band struck up, "God save the Queen," and all the soldiers 
sung the anthem. After that came the march past, when 
the way-worn soldiers tried to recover their lost swing for 
the honor of old England, and drop the plodding gait with 
which, wearily, they had marched over the veldt. 

"Johannesburg was English," says Mr. Barnes, "I say 
English, but its appearance is more American. Almost all 
African town's have reminded me of those of the Middle West. 
This was like Omaha or Kansas City. In spite of its boarded- 
up shops and offices, it had a business-like air." 

On July 16 came the entrance into Pretoria, — Pretoria, 
which had dared the English to come on, received them 
without a shot, almost without a murmur. The enemy 
simply walked in. The capital which President Kruger 
told the world would be defended to the last gasp, acted 
as if the khaki-clad soldiers were her guests and she had 
invited them in. 

When Lord Roberts raised the Union Jack (the little 
silken flag that Lady Roberts had made eight months 



424 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

before, to be floated on the occasion), we are told that 
there was no sign in the place of conquerors or of 
conquered. 

The British officers who had been prisoners in the 
State School House were released ; but many of the private 
soldiers were carried off with the retreating army. We 
have Mr. Winston Churchill's account of his prison life in 
Pretoria, and most assuredly the treatment of the officers was 
not unkindly. It was nothing like that of the Reform 
prisoners in the jail at Pretoria. But prisoners of war 
were under charge of the state authorities, whereas the 
Reform prisoners were entirely under President Kruger 
and ■ his relative Du Plessis. Later, there were complaints 
made that the private soldiers in their prison camp had 
been only half fed ; but supplies among the Boers were 
running short, and prisoners of war ought not to expect 
better rations than fighting soldiers. One cruel trick was 
played, however, on the private soldiers in the prison camp 
at Watervaal, played by De Kotze, a man who had been 
prominent in the trial of the Reformers, and had afterwards 
fallen out of favor with the Autocrat of the Transvaal. 

An agreement had been entered into with the cap- 
tured English officers that if no attempt was made by 
their men to break out of prison, when the English armies 
approached Pretoria, they would be left behind to fall into 
the hands of their countrymen. The men were kept two 
days without food, until they were willing to agree to any- 
thing ; and then De Kotze persuaded nine hundred of them 
to leave their prison camp, and go, under guard, to the 
railroad which carried them to Elandspruit, whence they 
were removed to the northern hills. 

Pretoria seemed a relieved city, not a conquered one. 
But soon complications began to arise. Mr. Kruger had 
sent away his gold to Europe, and had paid all debts of 
the Government in paper. There was consequently great 
dissatisfaction and distress. The English authorities, dread- 
ing treachery on the part of railroad officials, refused 
any longer to employ the Germans, Hollanders, and Irish- 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 425 

men who had joined the Boer cause and worked their 
railroads. 

General Botha, the best general in the Boer service 
after the death of General Joubert, was in the hills around 
Pretoria, constantly skirmishing with detached parties of 
the English. De Wet was in Orange Free State along the 
railroad in their rear, so completely stopping communica- 
tion that for a week after the army was safely in Pretoria, 
no letters were received, and no despatches sent, except at 
great expense and with great peril. 

The Boers — "tame Boers," as the men called them — 
were quite ready to give up their arms, especially the Free 
Staters, who almost all expressed themselves glad that they 
should fight no more. 

The Municipal Committeemen found in power by 
Lord Roberts were kept in office ; but soon there was an 
undercurrent of suspicion on both sides, and military rule 
became more stringent than it had been in the first weeks 
of the occupation. 

There was at last a conspiracy to entrap Lord Roberts 
and to murder his principal officers. The leader in this 
plot was an ex -officer of the Portuguese army who had 
been employed in the mines at Johannesburg. He was 
executed, dying bravely, though the design he had proposed 
was treacherous, useless, and contemptible. 

The capital of the South African Republic had been 
removed to Lydenburg, one of the old capitals in the days 
of the four Republics. But afterwards the seat of gov- 
ernment was changed to the parlor car of a railroad train, 
kept on the track from Pretoria to Lorenzo Marquez 
ready for a start the moment it seemed necessary. When 
that moment came, Paul Kruger took refuge with the ex- 
consul of the Transvaal at Lorenzo Marquez, appointing 
Schalk Burger as a kind of President pro ie?n. during his 
absence, and giving out that he was about to make a 
trip to Europe for his health. Mrs. Kruger, a kindly, 
worthy lady, who had remained in her own house in Pretoria, 
and had even come out on her doorstep to see the entrance 



426 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

of the British troops, joined her husband at Lorenzo 
Marquez, and the Queen of Holland despatched to Dela- 
goa Bay the "Gelderland," a war-ship, in which he might 
make the voyage without fear of capture. 

As a sample of the feeling among some of the burghers 
at Pretoria, I venture to borrow another extract from Mr. 
Barnes's letters : — 

" Said a prominent burgher to me, ' For months we have 
spoken quietly among ourselves saying, " When the English 
come," and debating what we might do in the future. Our 
officials were saying, " The English will never reach here ; 
they are starving ; they mutiny ; they will not face our 
burghers ; their officers drive them to fight with whips ; " and our 
papers, under orders, printed stories of victories that never 
happened, till we smiled among ourselves. Only the very 
ignorant were deceived.' . . . He here pulled a newspaper clip- 
ping from his pocket. It was from the ' Volkstein ' ^ of a recent 
issue. It detailed a number of British reverses which I, who had 
been with the troops all the time, had not even heard of ; but 
here they were in the form of official despatches, giving them, 
on paper at least, an air of authenticity. The editor, either in 
irony or disgust, had added a little paragraph of his own : ' We 
are also informed,' he wrote, 'that Lord Kitchener and Lord 
Methuen are wounded ; Lord Roberts is a prisoner ; and the 
rest of the British army have committed suicide.' 

" ' How about Kruger and his advisers ? ' I asked the burgher. 
'What did they hope to gain?' 'I suppose they had their 
hopes,' he answered. ' Foreign intervention 1 ' ' Yes, most 
certainly.' 'And the gold.-" ' They spent much trying to get 
that intervention. There was an American, a politician, who 
could tell you that,' he added. ' And there were Irish and 
French and Germans and Hollanders; they got most. There 
was some gold sent to England. And they paid all their debts 
in paper; that is no good now.' 'But President Kruger?' 
' He hoped for miracles. He was already the richest man in 
the Transvaal ; the others had to make it all; they were not so 
rich.' 'Do you think the people would like them to come 
back ? ' ' There are some that had better not come back,' was 
the reply." 

1 The only Pretoria paper allowed, I think, to circulate. — E. W. L. 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 427 

And so we may say ended the Boer War, for the Boers 
had neither a government with which the British could 
treat, a capital, nor an administration. General de Wet is 
fighting as a guerilla. His sole hope is to worry the British. 
The capitals of the South African Republic and the Orange 
Free State are in British hands ; so also is the Delagoa Bay 
Railroad ; fighting on the Boer part is now hopeless, except 
that it inflicts loss upon the British, and impedes a peace- 
able settlement. 

We may here end our account of South Africa in the 
nineteenth century. The English still have to achieve paci- 
fication in the Transvaal ; that is the affair of the military 
commanders, but reconciliation may be the work of years ; 
it will need great prudence and a Christian spirit, and it 
will be the task, less of the government than of individuals. 
Orange River Colony will be more easily reconciled than 
the Transvaal. It was led into the war partly by racial 
feeling, partly by the ambition of its President and his offi- 
cials. The Free State has suffered a most cruel reverse, 
and one which has fallen with bewildering suddenness. 
"They would," says a correspondent of the London 
"Spectator," "be unworthy of their own most honorable 
past, were they insensible enough to escape from the pen- 
alty. We can do little to compensate them for their 
wounded feelings. We cannot improve their orderly and 
thrifty administration. We cannot greatly better their ad- 
mirable system of laws." They have long had a British 
population residing among them, English churches, even 
an English bishop of Bloemfontein. They do not hate the 
British like their brothers of the Transvaal ; they have not 
had a mining population to stir up irritation ; it is to be 
hoped that before the present generation passes away, the 
war will be forgotten, and that there will be complete recon- 
ciliation. 

And here we must leave the subject. The future is in 
the hands of the British Government, and while we are 
very sure that there will be no third restoration of " inde- 
pendence " to Republics which have made so bad a use of 



428 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

former generosity, we have every reason to hope that so 
brave an enemy will be treated with all justice and consid- 
eration. 

In the minds of the British people, there is a great dis- 
tinction between President Kruger and his officials, and the 
Boers who fought under his orders. For many months 
past I have regretted that in the American Episcopal Book 
of Common Prayer one prayer in the Daily Service of the 
Church of England has been omitted : " Give peace in 
our time, O Lord ; — because there is none that fighteth 
for us, but only Thou, O Lord." 

And here perhaps I may say a word about the pathetic 
confidence of the Boers that their cause was just and would 
be upheld by Providence. No Christian can read of the 
prayers they offered, of the rifles inscribed with texts, and of 
their confidence in the help of the Almighty, without emo- 
tion. And yet if all prayers were to be literally granted, 
they would transfer the government of the world to the 
caprices of the ignorant. All prayers from the heart, I do 
not doubt, receive an answer ; but they must be offered 
in the spirit of that model of all prayer, "Thy will be 
done." 

The cause of the Boers is lost. And although General 
de Wet and others may keep up for some time raids and 
guerilla fighting, such warfare is wicked, and can produce 
no satisfactory results. 

The Boers in the past year have lost some of their best 
leaders, Cronj6 and Joubert among their generals, and 
some of their best foreign advisers, Schiel and Albrecht, 
Germans, and the French director who made their artil- 
lery so effective. 

A few words in conclusion should be said about General 
Joubert, nor must I omit some account of the siege and 
relief of Mafeking. 

The point of deepest interest to all of us in the Boer 
war was what concerned the long siege and the ultimate 
relief of Mafeking. The town is situated on the railroad 
running from Capetown to Bulawayo. It is considerably 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 429 

north of Kimberley. Between them Hes Vryburg, which 
was surrendered early in the war to General Cronje, on his 
approach with a large force of Boers. Mafeking is about a 
thousand miles by rail from Capetown, and a hundred and 
fifty miles west of Pretoria. Before the war began, Colonel 
Baden- Powell received orders to collect troops in Rhodesia, 
and to take them to Mafeking. Accordingly, with about 
twelve hundred men, he reached the post assigned him 
only a few days before the war began. The siege lasted 
two hundred and fourteen days, and the place was closely 
invested by about six thousand Boers under General Cronje. 
When he was called away to oppose the relieving force 
destined for Kimberley, the siege of Mafeking was carried 
on by Suyman, another Boer general. 

Mafeking is a small city, and the force in it was small. 
It had few guns, and those were of an old pattern. It 
could not therefore make much defence. It could only 
hold out, and endure. 

Gradually the strength of the garrison grew less ; am- 
munition and provisions ran low; the stock of food was 
reduced to minced mule and locust curry. In February, 
the first attempt was made to relieve the place by Colonel 
Plumer, who, with a force raised in Rhodesia, got on the 
last day of March within sight of the beleaguered city. But 
the Boers drove back Colonel Plumer's little force, and the 
gallant garrison in Mafeking had to wait with hope deferred 
for six weeks longer. Women and children had been sent 
away from Ladysmith and Kimberley before those cities 
were surrounded by the enemy ; but there was no time for 
this precaution at Mafeking. As promptly as General 
Joubert, on October 1 2, crossed the border into Natal, so 
promptly did Cronje cross the frontier to the westward, 
and invest Mafeking., 

At last in the first weeks of May, Colonel Mahon, one of 
Lord Kitchener's most trusted officers, with twenty-three 
hundred men, made his way secretly by forced marches, 
chiefly at night, and approached Mafeking on the west side 
of the railroad. When Colonel Mahon was within twenty 



430 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

miles of the place, he effected a junction with Colonel 
Plumer's Rhodesians. After two days of severe fighting, 
the united force, under its two commanders, made its way 
into the city, having captured several hundred prisoners. 

When news of this reached London, all business was sus- 
pended, crowds thronged the streets cheering and waving 
flags. Foreigners in London expressed astonishment at 
such demonstrations of joy from those they had been 
taught to consider an undemonstrative people. All night 
long and the next day, crowds surrounded the residence of 
the Prince of Wales, Buckingham Palace, and the private 
residence of Colonel Powell, cheering and serenading. 
Even the Charterhouse School, where Colonel Powell had 
been educated, was cheered. For of all the heroes of the 
Transvaal war, none had called forth so much feeling on the 
part of the public as Colonel Baden-Powell. " It may even 
be claimed," says a writer in the " Outlook," " that he is the 
man whom, next to the veteran 'Bobs,' Englishmen will de- 
light to honor. Indeed, it may be claimed that no soldier 
in the history of the British army has shown himself more 
resourceful, more magnetically cheerful and valorous." 

He has been in the army since he was nineteen, and 
served with the Hussars through wars in India, and in the 
Zulu, Ashanti, and Matabele campaigns.^ During the seven 
months that the siege of Mafeking lasted, the brilliant ex- 
hibition of his military powers, his genius for strategy and 
for resource in difficulty touched the hearts, and flattered 
the national pride of his countrymen, and the garrison was 

1 "General Baden-Powell — and here lies his especial claim to 
fame — was an ideal 'Barracks officer.' He spent his whole time 
and interest among his men. He would take parties into the country ; 
he would lecture to them, play games with them, and when nothing 
else was to be done, give instruction in ' flag-wagging ' in the squares." 
— The Story of Baden-Powell, by Harold Begbie, chapter on " The 
Regimental Officer." 

Compare this with what was written by Lionel Decle (now an ex- 
plorer in East Africa under the English Government) concerning the 
relations of French officers in barracks with their men in " Trooper 
3809." 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 43 1 

imbued with its commander's own spirit of ingenuity, 
cheerfulness, readiness, and intelligent intrepidity. 

The siege was much longer than those of Kimberley and 
Ladysmith, and the town was more closely invested. The 
display of enthusiasm in London when word of its relief 
was received, was even greater than that which greeted the 
good news from Ladysmith ; the scenes were unprecedented 
in the annals of the metropolis. Unfortunately, the un- 
checked joy of the populace degenerated at last into 
rudeness. A solemn Te Deum was offered in St. Paul's 
Cathedral, and on Sunday, "God save the Queen" and 
psalms of thanksgiving were sung in all the churches. 

Here is an account of how Mr. Barnes, whom my 
readers will not think I have quoted too often, saw Colonel 
Baden- Powell when he came into Pretoria on a visit to 
Lord Roberts, three weeks after the end of the siege. 

" I shall never forget my first glimpse of the man who had 
refused to be downed or daunted, and who had jumped from a 
clever colonel with ambitions, to be a major-general by the 
sheer force of dogged determination and a cheerful heart. 

" He came into Pretoria almost unheralded. In fact, until he 
had met the guard sent out to meet him, he had ridden almost 
alone, only five or six men accompanying him. 

" He wore no straps or ribbons. In appearance he looked 
the Western cavalry leader who might have fought in our own 
American frontier wars. Here was the man that the real Boer 
admired and feared more than any that the English army had 
produced. 

" Had his approach been universally known, there would have 
been a large crowd to greet him. As it was, but few knew of 
his coming, but there was a cheer as soon as he was recognized. 
A citizen of English appearance dismounted from a l)icycle, 
and, pressing through the crowd, shook him by the hand. I 
was close enough to hear the conversation. 

" ' We 've waited for you here a long time, colonel,' he said. 
* May I shake hands with you ? ' 

" ' Certainly,' said the general, laughing, ' I thought I 'd get 
here some time.' 

" With that he and his escort galloped off on their way to 
meet the field-marshal. There were hearty greetings when they 
met. When they dismounted, they had to submit to a volley of 



432 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

kodak photography. Baden-Powell's personality is such that it 
is safe to wager if he should make no mistakes, and meet with 
no misfortunes, his popularity will never wane." 

Among the Boers there was one man whose popularity 
was world-wide, and whose death was sincerely lamented 
by friend and foe. When news of General Joubert's death 
in March, 1900, reached England, Queen Victoria cabled 
to Lord Roberts, asking him to convey to Mrs. Joubert her 
sympathy for her in the loss of her husband, and to tell her 
that the British people always regarded the dead general as 
a brave soldier and an honorable foe. 

The men who were most bitter in their attacks on Presi- 
dent Kruger and others, had nothing to say against General 
Joubert, except that he was severe in his dealings with the 
enemies of his country, and even in this he was without the 
rancor of other Boer leaders. He loved peace, and labored 
to maintain it, so that in his later years some of the Boers 
thought him more conciliatory and less aggressive than he 
should have been. 

His full name was Pietrus Jacobus Joubert. He was 
born in Cape Colony in 1832. His father, when England 
had aroused great indignation among the Dutch colonists 
by her policy of emancipation, and her way of conducting 
it, moved to Orange Free State, and subsequently into the 
Transvaal. The family were descended from a Huguenot 
settler, whose descendants intermarried with the Dutch. 
General Joubert's early life was spent upon his father's cattle 
farm. He never saw a newspaper till he was nineteen years 
old. But he took advantage of the few opportunities that 
presented themselves of gaining knowledge, and very early 
he was known to be a splendid fighter. He and Kruger 
were always rivals. Their characters were different ; their 
religious views were different ; yet in their personal inter- 
course they appeared friends ; most frequently Kruger would 
not listen to Joubert's advice. " Had he taken it," said one 
of Joubert's friends, " he would have had much less trouble 
with the Uitlanders, and might have prevented the war by 
diplomacy." 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 433 

" Kruger is an Old Testament Christian ; Joubert is a 
New Testament Christian," said some one who knew them 
both. We all have heard much of the bitter opposition of 
the Boers to any attempt made to Christianize the Kafifirs, 
but lately I met with an account of how Joubert, being in a 
remote part of the country, was taken by a lady to see the 
result of some efforts she had been making to do missionary 
work among the black people, and he expressed to her his 
great satisfaction and sympathy. 

He loved honor and was true to his word. We have seen 
how he refused, when the Transvaal was annexed by Eng- 
land in 1877, to take the oath of allegiance or to accept 
any place under the new government. But seven years 
later, after the Boers had bound themselves to keep within 
their own frontier, when Kruger and other leaders planned 
to annex Bechuanaland, Joubert said : " I positively refuse 
to hold office under a government that deliberately breaks 
its covenants. We have made covenants with England." 
And as he had been selected to lead the Boer army, this 
broke up the plan. 

When some one at the time he was in England asked 
him about his victory at Majuba Hill, he answered, " Don't 
talk to me about Majuba Hill. I am positively disgusted 
with the very name of it. We fought against the British 
for our rights, and will do so again if necessary. But it 
will not be necessary, and we are a peace-loving people." 

At that very battle of Majuba Hill Joubert went at once 
to Sir George Colley, who lay dying, and spoke to him with 
tenderness and sympathy. Sir George insisted upon giving 
him his sword, and his last words were, " You are a brave 
man, Joubert. God bless you." 

It was the Jameson Raid that broke up his quiet life like 
an alarm bell. He then foresaw the possibility of war, 
and accepted the task of organizing the Boer army, 

"General Joubert had divided the Transvaal into seventeen 
military districts, and then subdivided them repeatedly, placing 
each in the command of an appropriate officer, who saw to it 
that every competent man was ready to appear completely 

28 



434 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

equipped at an appointed place upon a short summons. When 
the war came on, Joubert had only to send seventeen telegrams 
to set the whole machinery of mobilization in motion, and to 
bring all the forces to the field in forty-eight hours. He had 
prepared likewise the artillery, ammunition, and war supplies of 
every kind." i 

The Transvaal is a country more completely shut into 
itself than Paraguay was in the days of Dr. Francia. It 
has no outlet to the sea ; it has been obliged to beg one 
from the Portuguese, and has had to receive all its sup- 
plies from Lorenzo Marquez, the port on Delagoa Bay. 
Portugal has two seaports in her East African territory, 
Lorenzo Marquez and Beira. Beira is the more northerly 
of the two. From Delagoa Bay to Pretoria there is a 
railroad, built a dozen years ago, largely by the enterprise 
of an American company. Portugal granted a concession 
in 1883 to Colonel McMurdo of Kentucky to build a rail- 
road from Delagoa Bay to the Transvaal frontier. When 
the road was nearly completed, Portugal said suddenly that 
her frontier line was five miles farther ahead than the 
terminus at first agreed upon. As Colonel • McMurdo 
could not complete these five miles within the time cove- 
nanted by the contract, the Portuguese Government seized 
the road, and President Kruger declined to guarantee its 
extension into the Transvaal. The English authorities and 
those of the United States made strong representations to 
the Portuguese Government on behalf of their own bond 
and share holders. The matter, ten years ago, was placed 
in the hands of the government of the Swiss Republic, 
which was to appoint three arbitrators to settle the amount 
of damages Portugal was to pay. The award was not 
made until the spring of this year (1900), and proved much 
less than England or the United States had expected. 
Had it been as large as the aggrieved parties hoped, it was 
foreseen that Portugal might not be able to pay it, in which 
case England was disposed to advance the money, taking 

1 "American Monthly Review of Reviews, May, 1900. 



CAPTURE OF PRETORIA 435 

security in the possession of Delagoa Bay. Portugal will, 
however, be able to furnish the $3,062,800 required of her, 
together with ten years' interest at five per cent, and Delagoa 
Bay therefore will not, for the present at least, pass into 
British hands. 



CHAPTER IX 

OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 

nPHIS chapter cannot be called a narrative of events in 
-*- Eastern, Western, Northern, and Central Africa since 
September, 1895, when my "Europe in Africa in the 
Nineteenth Century" was completed; it is rather a collec- 
tion of postscripts, to be added to the record of events that 
have since happened in various lesser African States, semi- 
civilized or uncivilized, most of which now form part of 
European protectorates, or are included in their spheres of 
influence. 

Abyssinia. The first one on my list is the independent 
kingdom of Abyssinia ruled over by Menelik II., Lion of 
the Tribe of Judah, who claims to be descended from 
Menelik, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. 
We speak of his country always as Abyssinia, but its in- 
habitants repudiate the name, and call it Ethiopia. 

The story of King Menelik's struggle with the Italians 
was not completed when " Europe in Africa " went to press, 
for it did not end until after the battle of Adowa, about 
which I told in 1896 in " Italy in the Nineteenth Century." 
Indeed, peace was not fully established until more than a 
year later, when all the Italian prisoners were set free. 

The good-will of King Menelik has been earnestly 
sought not only by Italy, but by France, Russia, and Eng- 
land. England desired his non-interference with her efforts 
to establish Anglo-Egyptian rule over Egypt's lost prov- 
inces in the Soudan. While France dreamed of a railroad 
to cross Africa from her possessions on the west coast to 
Obok, southeast of Abyssinia, the territory she holds on the 
Gulf of Aden, she became exceedingly desirous that Eng- 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 437 

land should not cross her path. She therefore sent Major 
Marchand's gallant little band across the Dark Con- 
tinent. Its commander, when he reached Fashoda, ex- 
pected to be joined by a reinforcement from Abyssinia in 
the guise of a scientific expedition led by the Marquis de 
Bonchamps. It had been joined by Prince Henri of 
Orleans (son of the Due de Chartres), who had gone out 
to Abyssinia in the character of a reporter for a Parisian 
newspaper. 

To foil the intrigues of the Marquis and the Prince, 
England sent a mission to King Menelik, at the head of 
which was Mr. Rennell Rodd, a man of great ability, a 
relative of Lord Salisbury, secretary to Lord Cromer, and 
fully acquainted with African affairs. 

I have told already, in my chapter on President Felix 
Faure, how he is supposed to have been more than privy to 
the underhand designs of these Frenchmen in Abyssinia, 
and how he proposed that the expedition under Major 
Marchand should play into their hands. But King Mene- 
lik, influenced by Mr. Rodd, did not do anything to favor 
the expedition of Bonchamps and Prince Henri, which 
marched toward the upper waters of the Nile, but found 
it impossible to navigate rivers obstructed by sudd, — that 
is, by the rank growth of rushes, lilies, water weeds, and 
other plants. Before they could overcome this obstacle, 
ammunition and provisions failed them. They retraced 
their steps, and Major Marchand, with his own supplies 
run low, vainly awaited them. 

Prince Henri, had not the scheme miscarried, might 
have been a popular hero in France, with the best personal 
claim among the Pretenders to the French throne. 

Since the Anglo-Egyptians have established themselves 
at Khartoum and on the Upper Nile, Menelik has been 
engaged chiefly in defining his boundaries and subduing 
tribal rebels. He has had to settle with the Italians the 
frontier between his country and Eritrea (the strip of land 
they have retained bordering on the Red Sea and Gulf 
of Aden) ; with the French he has had to determine the 



438 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

boundary between Abyssinia and Obok ; while the Enghsh 
have been very anxious that the fortified towns between 
Suakim and Berber once held by Italy, but which the Der- 
vishes conquered from the Abyssinians, should, by virtue of 
the victory at Omdurman, be considered Anglo- Egyptian 
conquests. 

So France, England, and Italy have bidden for the favor 
of King Menelik; while Russia, with apparently no very 
definite views of what she was to gain by the friendship of 
the Negus, sent him a complete hospital equipment, under 
members of the Red Cross, and encouraged Count Leon- 
tieff to escort a large party of Abyssinian princes and prel- 
ates on a visit to St. Petersburg. 

A recent traveller describes King Menelik as far from 
being handsome. He is stout and is much pockmarked, 
nor is he so light in color as many of his subjects. But his 
features are European, though he shows no traces of the 
descent he claims from the Jews. His glance is stern, but 
his smile kindly. He showed Christian feeling when he 
dismissed an Italian garrison forced by hunger to surrender 
at Makale, with the words, " I do not wish it said that 
Christian men died like dogs in my dominions." 

Madagascar. Our history of Madagascar terminated in 
1895, when poor Queen Ranavalona was apprehending a 
French invasion. A book written by Mr. Bennett Bur- 
leigh (one of the best English newspaper correspondents) 
tells us how he was sent out to Madagascar in 1895 by the 
" Daily Telegraph " to report on what was going on there 
for the information of the English public, which had con- 
tradictory reports from French newspapers and the London 
Missionary Society. 

With brave words the poor Queen, though she rarely 
appeared in public, endeavored at a military kabary, or 
assemblage of her people, to inspirit and encourage them. 
Her little speech, as Mr. Burleigh reports it, was delivered 
extempore, and she spoke evidently from her heart; as 
such it is a model of military eloquence ; but, alas ! she 
had no foreign support. England had trafficked away all 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 439 

right to intervene in the affairs of Madagascar for an under- 
standing with France on those of Zanzibar. 

It seems to me that the conduct of the French in refer- 
ence to Madagascar, whose rulers and whose people had 
never committed any offence against them, was the most 
nationally discreditable thing in the last half of the nine- 
teenth century. The Hovas were a rapidly civilizing 
people. They were Christians for the most part, with 
an orderly government, and diplomatic relations with the 
civilized world. The French had absolutely no excuse for 
invading their island, except, as the Queen said, that 
they wanted to possess her land. It was international 
burglary. 

The people of Madagascar were wholly unprepared to 
resist the French. As Mr. Burleigh and their own Euro- 
pean officers told them, their army was not disciplined, 
their rifles and their cannon were of obsolete patterns, and 
their towns had not been put into a state of defence. There 
were intrigues going on in the court circle. Frenchmen 
from the Mauritius had great influence at Antananarivo ; 
they desired that the country should become French, and 
held out hopes that if such should be the case, there would 
be a large immigration to it from their island. 

The French general in command at the time was 
General Metzinger ; the French minister of war, his chief, 
was General Mercier. In vain the Queen appealed to him 
for humanity and justice. At last she assembled an army 
of thirty thousand men. The old law of Madagascar was 
that any soldier who deserted in time of war should, if taken, 
be burned alive ; this law was modified by the Queen, who 
substituted the penalty of becoming an outcast in death and 
in life, for his bones were never to be buried with those of 
his people. 

The French landed fifteen thousand men at one of the 
northern ports of the island. A rebellion broke out among 
the Sakalavas, and their tribe became French allies. 
Colonel Shervinton and other European officers, finding it 
impossible to effect anything with undisciplined troops who 



440 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

would neither obey them nor respect them, all resigned. 
The Queen, deceived by false news, still put her trust in 
Taros and Daros (forests and fever), and by one at least of 
these auxiliaries the French were severely attacked. 

The French army made its way over mountains to Suber- 
beville, a French gold-mining settlement ; but although the 
position was defensible, the Malagasy soldiers made little 
stand there. It was their national custom to fight naked ; 
and now that they had no European officers to enforce 
civilized discipline, they revived the old custom, and their 
naked bodies were soon riddled by the bullets of the enemy. 
They were utterly discouraged, and deserted in great num- 
bers. Indeed, one of their generals said that if one hun- 
dred caught sight of two French soldiers, they would run. 

General Duchesne, who had now taken command of the 
French, waited to make due preparations for his advance 
on the capital. He began his march Sept. 15, 1895. 
He had made a road over the mountains, and cut down 
the forests. Two thousand of his men had died of fever, 
seven thousand were in hospital ; only fifty had died in 
battle or of wounds. The bravest men in his army, and 
those best calculated to stand the climate, were the dis- 
ciplinaires from Algeria ; that is, men of punishment regi- 
ments, to which soldiers were sent who had committed 
breaches of discipline, or could not get on with their 
officers. 

Antananarivo, when the French got there, made a brief 
but spirited resistance. The invading army entered it 
Sept. 30, 1895, the very day Duchesne had fixed on some 
months before. 

The Queen was deprived of all authority, but was allowed 
to retain her title. Her Prime Minister and husband was 
sent to Algeria. Madagascar became a French protector- 
ate ; but within a very few months it was proclaimed to be 
a French colony. General Gallieni was made Governor of 
Antananarivo, in place of M. Laroche, a French Protestant, 
whose administration had been considered too mild. This 
change took place while the Queen was still nominally the 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 441 

sovereign of the island ; but General Gallieni began his rule 
by insulting her, not only as a Queen, but as a woman, by 
requiring her to make the first call on him. 

As soon as the island was proclaimed a French colony, 
a law, old as the days of the First Revolution, was put in 
force. This law forbade slavery in any French colony or 
possession. 

On Sept. 27, 1 89 6, one hundred thousand slaves in 
Madagascar were set free. All kinds of disorders ensued. 
Tribes in remote parts of the island, held in subjection by 
the Hovas, rose in rebellion against their new masters. 
Massacres of white men, missionaries, and Christian con- 
verts took place throughout the island, which seemed given 
over to brigandage. In a few months from three to four 
hundred churches had been burned, and white missionaries, 
as well as hundreds of native teachers and native Christians, 
had been slain. The Norwegian-Lutheran Mission stations 
were destroyed, and fifty of their churches. In one district 
sixty white women and children were shut up in a place 
bravely defended by a French garrison of twenty-seven men, 
and besieged by fifteen hundred natives. Just as their food 
and ammunition were giving out, they were relieved by a 
party of Malagasy soldiers under a Malagasy general. 

The French chose to imagine that these disorders had 
been caused by British sympathizers. Some of the Queen's 
relations, and some of her high officials, were arrested, and 
two at least were executed. The Queen herself was exiled 
to the neighboring island of Reunion, and subsequently was 
removed to Algiers. The last I heard about her was that 
she had asked leave from the French Government to visit 
Paris during the Exposition. I do not know whether that 
favor was granted her. 

Poor lady ! the royal race of the Hovas is as fair as 
southern races of Europeans. To judge by her portraits, 
one of which is the frontispiece to Mr. Burleigh's book, and 
another is in my own " Europe in Africa," ^ she has fine 

1 A friend kindly procured it for me from the London Missionary 
Society. 



442 LAST YEARS OF THE NTNETEJENTH CENTURY 

aquiline European features and a great deal of personal 
dignity. The same may be said of her husband and Prime 
Minister, Rainilaiarivony. 

There were four hundred and fifty thousand Protestant 
Christians in Madagascar when the French took possession 
of the island, and fifty thousand Roman Catholics. It is 
just to say that when power fell into French hands, there 
were no attempts made by the civil authorities or by Jesuit 
missionaries to persecute the Protestants. 

The French are doing their best to make good roads 
through the island, and to set up poles for telegraph wires. 
This is their method of colonization. But even the pros- 
pect of gold mining has failed to tempt Frenchmen to 
settle on the island ; those there at present are almost all 
soldiers, officials, or Mauritians. 

All letters or newspapers allowed to come into the island 
during the Protectorate, or in the first two years of the 
French colony, had to be examined by the French authori- 
ties. The American Consul at Tamatave, a colored citizen 
of the United States from Kansas, who had procured from 
the Queen the grant of some valuable timber land, covered 
with rubber-trees, was accused by the French of sending 
and forwarding letters, contrary to this ordinance. He was 
arrested as a spy, tried by a court-martial, condemned to 
twenty years' imprisonment and the loss of all his property. 
This led to much diplomatic correspondence between the 
Government of France and that in Washington. Waller 
never obtained justice, but was released from prison and 
sent home to America, as a courteous concession to the 
United States Government. 

Meantime the French authorities, anxious to exploit their 
gold mines and to invite colonists, offered to men of all 
nations the right to stake out claims for twenty-five francs 
each. Five gold prospectors from South Africa took ad- 
vantage of this offer ; but on their way to the gold region 
they were arrested as spies, and sent in chains to Tamatave. 
The authorities there, apprehending that the English Gov- 
ernment might intervene in their behalf, shipped them 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 443 

(still in chains) to the Mauritius, where they were landed 
without money, and ended by taking service in the local 
police. 

In January, 1899, the British Foreign Office was asked to 
take notice of the way in which France was violating her 
written engagement that British trade privileges should not 
be interfered with in Madagascar. A protest having been 
made upon the subject, the French Government replied that 
tlie agreement was made while Madagascar was a French 
protectorate, and they had made no pledges concerning 
Madagascar as a French colony. Duties were levied on 
English goods to the amount of forty-five per cent, while 
French goods paid only four per cent. In addition to 
this, French officials attempted to put a boycott on English 
stores and force the natives to buy French manufactures. 
The commandant at Tamatave said, addressing the people : 
" I will not allow you to buy any goods whatever in the 
shops of So and So " (naming certain Englishmen). "Any 
one caught making the smallest purchase, or carrying on 
the slightest business with the houses I have mentioned, 
will be at once imprisoned, no security being given against 
heavy penalties." ^ 

This question came up after the Fashoda affair, when 
Lord Salisbury and M. Delcass^ settled all disputes between 
France and England. How this matter was arranged, I 
suppose is recorded in a Parliamentary Blue Book. I 
presume the arrangement was satisfactory. 

Uganda. Uganda has been a British protectorate since 
July 19, 1894. My chapter on Uganda, in "Europe in 
Africa," — which I consider an interesting one, — ended 
when Major Cunningham and Lieutenant Vandeleur were 
on their way to Unyoro to conduct operations against 
Kabba Rega, and to extend the limits of the South African 
Company along Lake Albert and the Nile. They drove 
Kabba Rega, not without loss, out of his dominions, but he 
came back soon after, and renewed hostilities. Again he 

^ " Spectator," London, Jan. 14, 1899. Copied from a Tamatave 
paper, Le Madagascar. 



444 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

was chased out of Unyoro, but after that Captain Lugard 
ran a chain of forts through his dominions, cutting off 
nearly one half, giving it over to a chief hostile to Kabba 
Rega, and placing in the forts garrisons of the Soudanese 
soldiers, once under the command of Emin Pasha. Then 
Kabba Rega felt that he was being driven out of his king- 
dom altogether. The London " Spectator " of Jan. 20, 
1898, takes up the story of Uganda where I left it in 
" Europe in Africa." 

" A year ago missionaries and administrators were writing 
home to say that when the railway reached Uganda it would 
find a community already far advanced in civilization, — a com- 
munity in which trade and civilization were taking root, and where 
the natives had been taught to set up type and to do printing. 
It was not a year ago when the railway, completed for nearly 
one hundred miles from the coast, carried up the first contin- 
gent of troops to take part in Major MacDonald's expedition 
to explore the territory between the Blue Nile and the White 
Nile." 

But unhappily a change came over this pleasing pros- 
pect. The Soudanese troops had originally been enlisted 
by Emin Pasha. They were afterwards adopted by the 
East African Company, which gave them small pay, but 
assigned them land around the forts they garrisoned. This 
led to a mutiny. When the Soudanese soldiers were 
ordered on distant service, they declared that they could not 
abandon their farms and families, and broke out into rebel- 
lion. Endless trouble ensued. King Mwanga left Uganda 
secretly July 6, 1897, and headed a revolt in the Buddu, a 
Roman Catholic district, against the English Company. 

Mwanga had been angered by a decree forbidding his 
people to export ivory into German East Africa, and was 
eager to make common cause with the discontented Cath- 
olics in Buddu. 

A battle took place, in which Kabba Rega and Mwanga 
were defeated, after which the English proclaimed the two- 
year-old son of Mwanga King of Uganda in his father's 
stead. The boy was the son of a Protestant mother, and 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 445 

had been baptized as a Protestant. Mwanga escaped into 
German territory, where he was held a prisoner. 

In 1898 came the revolt of the Soudanese Rifles, al- 
ready mentioned. They had been settled in the line of 
forts across Unyoro, which they looked on as an enemy's 
country, so they not only cultivated the land assigned 
them, but indulged in pillage. 

They were Mohammedans, and naturally sympathized, 
not with the converts of Christian missionaries, but with the 
Arabs. Each man had a numerous family, and not less 
than three wives. When not employed in rebellion, pillag- 
ing, or active service, they carried on agriculture, but when 
ordered to long distances from their homes and families, 
their discipline gave way. 

Colonel MacDonald, who had been ordered to bring a 
force from Uganda to intercept Kabba Rega when he should 
attempt to reinforce the Dervishes at Khartoum, found it 
impossible to obey his orders. 

The Uganda Rifles were the sixth part of the military 
force in Uganda, being about sixteen hundred men. They 
marched part of the way along which their colonel wished 
to lead them, but, growing weary and discouraged, they 
refused to go farther, not knowing what provision would 
be made in their absence for their families. They also 
complained of their pay and of their rations, and started 
homeward. 

Then ensued a series of fights between loyal troops, as- 
sisted by the Protestants of Uganda and the mutineers. 
Hostilities lasted for about a year, until Mohammedan troops 
were sent from India to put down their co-religionists. 

Mwanga escaped from German territory, and began an 
irregular war in the western districts of Unyoro. 

On the arrival of Indian troops he was so evidently at 
a disadvantage that his allies, the Roman Catholic chiefs 
in Buddu, were glad to make peace. At last came an 
engagement in which Kabba Rega was defeated and 
wounded, and he and Mwanga, having been taken prisoners, 
were sent out of the country. 



446 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Sir Harry H. Johnston, the able administrator of Nyas- 
saland, was then appointed ruler of Uganda, with more 
power and authority than had been given to his prede- 
cessor, Mr. Berkeley. 

The railroad from Mombassa had two hundred and 
sixty miles completed by Feb. i, 1899. It will open up 
a great road for trade; for the inhabitants of Central 
Africa are natural traders. It will stop slave raids, and 
may connect eventually with the Cape to Cairo Railroad. 
Above all, it will put an end to the terrible portage system, 
by which everything civilization sends to Central Africa 
has to be brought on men's shoulders from the sea. The 
railroad has to pass through the country of wild and war- 
like tribes, the most ferocious of which are the Masai. 
The laborers on it are chiefly Indian coolies, and the 
mortality among them, in spite of all care and precaution, 
has been frightful. 

The Congo Free State. This portion of Africa ex- 
tending along the Congo, and first made known by Stanley 
to the civilized world, was looked upon after the arrange- 
ment concluded by the Berlin Congress in 1878 as in 
some sort the personal and private fief of King Leopold 
of Belgium. The Belgian Government declined to annex 
it ; it was not even a Crown Colony, but it was an inde- 
pendent State under the rule and management of the King 
of the Belgians. 

When the enterprise was first started. King Leopold 
gave it forty millions of francs out of his private means, 
and followed up this gift by a million francs annually from 
the same source. But this burden proved at length too 
heavy for his resources. In 1894 he wanted to hand over 
Congo Free State to the Belgian Government. A bill for 
its annexation was introduced into the Belgian Legislature 
Jan. 9, 1895 \ b'^' the annexation was violently opposed. 
Thereafter quarrels arose between France and Belgium 
about their respective frontiers, and about the lease to 
England of a strip of land west of the Nile, which both 
France and England had claimed, but which had been 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 447 

given up to the Free State. Then England obtained it on 
lease, to complete the continuous route of her proposed 
Cape to Cairo Railroad. France earnestly opposed this 
arrangement, having had hopes of appropriating the prov- 
ince of Bahr-el-Ghazal, by means of Major Marchand's ex- 
pedition, that officer having been instructed to build forts 
along his route and make agreements with the natives. 

The plan of annexing Congo Free State to Belgium was 
at last given up, and King Leopold retained his African 
sovereignty. The history of the Congo Free State ever 
since has been one of great financial difficulty, and of 
perpetual wars with native tribes and Arabs. Twice the 
King of the Belgians offered the government of his Congo 
kingdom to Englishmen of great distinction, — namely, to 
General Gordon and to Henry Stanley, — but both were 
compelled by previous engagements to refuse the position. 

In spite of wars and financial embarrassment, some 
progress in the eastern part of the Congo Free State has 
been made in the civilization of the natives, especially 
since the trade with them in liquor and in fire-arms has 
been stopped. Missions have flourished, especially those 
of the American Baptists, but at a terrible cost of devoted 
lives. ^ 

For the past two years, however, horrible accounts have 
reached us of the treatment of the natives in the Congo 
Free State. About the middle of 1893 forced labor was 
imposed on them, and this has been attended by most 
inhuman practices. Soldiers shoot or mutilate at their own 
will any native who refuses to gather rubber. In one 
district on the Upper Congo, forty-eight villages in 1897 
were burned by the black soldiers of the State. 



1 In twenty-one years, out of seventy-five men connected with the 
American Baptist Mission on the Congo, twenty-eight have died 
either at their posts or at sea ; out of forty women, eight. Further 
examination of the list of men shows that eight died within a year of 
their arrival, five after one year, only one lived ten years, and two 
eight years. Mr. Bentley, who has written a book on the mission, 
lived on the Congo twenty-one years. 



448 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

It was a common thing to see sentries, after a fight or a 
raid, carrying baskets of right hands of men, women, and 
children to the white commissary to prove that they had 
not wasted their ammunition. 

When missionaries complained of outrages among their 
people, they were threatened, if insistent, with trial and 
penal servitude, on the charge of inciting natives to refuse 
to pay their tribute of rubber ; which was to the Govern- 
ment (always in pecuniary difficulties) the principal source 
of revenue. 

It has been the policy of the Free State in employing 
native soldiers to take advantage of the hereditary hostile 
feeling existing between various tribes, as, for instance, to 
use Batetela soldiers to maintain order among the Bangelas, 
and vice versa. 

In 1898, a serious mutiny broke out among the Batetela 
soldiers, who refused to leave their own country to take 
part in an expedition ordered for service on the Nile. 
Possibly they were encouraged by the similar mutiny of 
the Uganda Rifles. Many white officers lost their lives, 
either fighting with the mutineers, or by treachery. The 
Batetela then disbanded, and for months wandered over 
the country as brigands, until Baron Dhanis, having col- 
lected a sufficient force, marched flying columns through the 
land. 

This state of things continued even into last year, 1899, 
but Baron Dhanis, with a large force under his command 
and with the active assistance of Major Lothaire, pursued 
the enemy along the old slave raiders' route to Lake Tan- 
ganyika, and drove them into German territory. Major 
Lothaire was the Belgian officer who at the instance of the 
English Government had been tried at Brussels for the 
murder of Mr. Stokes, an Englishman.^ It was decided, 
however, that the killing of Mr. Stokes was a legitimate 
exercise of authority. 

Morocco. There is, I think, no history of Morocco to be 
told since I finished " Europe in Africa " at the close of 
1 I told the story in " Europe in Africa," pp. 207, 211, 443. 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 449 

1895. I then wrote of the accession of the present Sultan, 
(or Shereef) Abdul Aziz, June 6, 1894. But though 
Morocco has since afforded no historical narrative, there 
has been a great deal of discussion about that country in 
English and French papers. It has been whispered that 
there are three sick men — Turke}', China, and Morocco 
— whose inheritance may become a subject of dispute 
among the Great Powers ; and many people think, as the 
Emperor Nicholas did in 1854, with respect to Turkey, 
that it would be well if some international agreement were 
entered into beforehand. Prince Bismarck once said that 
the Moorish question would be more difificult to deal with 
than the Eastern. 

There are only three powers who could set up a reason- 
able claim to divide the spoils of the Emperor of Morocco, 
in case his dominion fell to pieces. These are England, 
France, and Spain. Of these, England, it is understood, 
has no wish for any portion of Morocco, and indeed, to say 
truth, if she did want to recover her old possession Tangier 
(given up by Charles II. in 1683), the other Powers never 
could be brought to allow her to possess another fortified 
post opposite Gibraltar. It would be putting the key of 
the Mediterranean absolutely into her hands. 

The plan proposed and discussed is that France should 
take the coast line of Morocco on the Atlantic south of Cape 
Spartel, and also acquire the Hinterland she has been so anx- 
ious to possess south of Algeria, — a district that has been 
hitherto in dispute between her and Morocco. Then that 
Spain, which has already military posts, and ten thousand 
Spanish subjects in the country, should take possession of 
the peninsula on the north, which contains Tetuan, Tangier, 
and Ceuta. This would be putting these places into the 
hands of a power no longer strong enough to make a 
dangerous use of them, and Tangier could be made into a 
free port which would be of advantage to all the world. 

France looks forward to establishing a great northern 
and western African empire; and why not? It is far better 
that she should turn her energies to Africa in the West than 

29 



450 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

be forever trying to " crowd out " England in other parts of 
the world. 

There is at present not only danger of anarchy before 
many years shall pass, in the Empire of Morocco, but there 
is great unrest among the many millions of Mohamme- 
dans who people Central and Western Africa. 

In " Europe in Africa," at pages 282 and 283, I told at 
some length of Senoussi, the Sheikh of Jerboub. Since then 
the Senoussi influence has largely increased. His spiritual 
authority now extends over the great Empire of Wadai, , 
and numerous other powerful Mohammedan States and 
kingdoms. 

Since the fall of Mahdism, there are three Heads of the 
Church (if I may call them so) left in Africa. First, Sultan 
Abdul Hamid, who, though not legally a caliph, is ac- 
knowledged by all Islam to be the most powerful ruler of 
the Mohammedan faith, and is looked up to by all as the 
Protector of the Holy Places. His spiritual influence in 
Africa, however, hardly extends beyond Tripoli. The next 
is the Shereef Abdul Aziz, the Emperor of Morocco, who, 
like the former Popes of Rome, exercises both spiritual and 
temporal power. His influence extends over the desert 
tribes that the French desire to subjugate, south of his 
dominions ; the third spiritual chief is Senoussi, whom his 
followers look on as a Mahdi, though he has never arrogated 
to himself that title. 

In Borku, a Mohammedan military adventurer named 
Rabah, possessing a large army of fanatical warriors, tri- 
umphantly carved his way in twenty years from the Bahr-el- 
Ghazal to Lake Chad, increasing his fighting strength with 
every victory. Twice he defeated European expeditions ; 
and while in the full tide of his success he received an em- 
bassy from Sultan Abdul Hamid. 

Late in the year 1899, the Sultan sent a strong military 
expedition into the Central Soudan. It was even reported 
that it had occupied Wadai. The French, too, have sent 
forces south of Algeria into the country of the Touaregs, who 
have been generally believed to be the most treacherous, 




GENERAL BULLER. 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 45 I 

thievish, and intractable of barbarians, but who, on the con- 
trary, have been well spoken of by Lieutenant Hoarst, a 
young French explorer, who made his way down the Niger 
from the mysterious city of Timbuctoo to French ports on 
the Atlantic Ocean. 

When disputes with the French Government were settled 
by Lord Salisbury and M. Delcass6, by a convention 
signed March 21, 1899, England recognized French 
pretensions over Tibesti, Borku, Kanem, and the greater 
part of Wadai, — regions or rather kingdoms in Central 
Africa about which France had been disputing with Eng- 
land for some years. Sultan Abdul Hamid protested 
against the convention as an infringement of his shadowy 
rights over the Tripolitan Hinterland ; and recently when 
the French made a simultaneous advance into the Central 
Soudan from the northwest and the south, the Sultan's 
forces moved toward Wadai. 

Early in the year 1899, a party of black Senegalese 
soldiers led by Captain Voulet and Lieutenant Chanoine, 
son of the French Minister of War at that time, though 
news of his appointment doubtless had not reached the 
interior of Africa, were tempted to desert their colors. 
They had formed a scheme to carve out a kingdom for 
themselves in Central Africa. Rumors of their disaf- 
fection reached the nearest post, and a party was sent 
to inquire into the matter. On reaching the encampment 
of the two ofificers. Colonel Klobb, who was in command 
of the party, halted his troops and went forward alone to 
hold a parley. He was at once shot dead by Captain Vou- 
let, and his men (nearly all of whom were natives), being 
left under command of a sergeant, retired. Some weeks 
later, while a memorial service was being held in Paris in 
honor of Colonel Klobb, the troops of Voulet and Chanoine, 
having been informed of their leaders' scheme to carve 
out for themselves a kingdom, rose against them and shot 
both the murderer and Lieutenant Chanoine, who, though 
not present, had consented to the deed. Two junior lieu- 
tenants had already deserted them, and two sergeants had 



452 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

also slipped away. Captain Voulet made his escape when 
Chanoine was shot and took refuge in a native hut, whence 
he was driven forth and slain by his men. All the officers 
and most of the men returned to duty, hoping that as they 
had acted under superior orders, they should escape punish- 
ment. A rumor of what had taken place and of the death 
of Klobb reached Paris at a crisis in the Dreyfus affair. It 
is thought that General Chanoine laid the matter at once 
before his colleagues, and, finding that they were not dis- 
posed to spare or screen his son, rose in the Chamber, made 
a bitter speech against the Cabinet and its poHcy, and 
resigned his post as Minister of War. The incident was 
considered wonderful when full particulars had been re- 
ceived, because officers were concerned in it, but m old 
days white men often had turned pirates or bush-rangers. 

The story, as it concluded, rather shows the strength of 
French discipline than its weakness, the subordinate officers 
and their subordinates, though gravely compromised, feel- 
ing irresistibly drawn back to their duty. 

West Coast of Africa. Though Miss Mary Kingsley 
has found a great deal that is interesting and picturesque 
to write about that unhealthy region, I should have little to 
say about it were it not for the late Ashanti War. 

In 1895—96 there was another Ashanti war, in which 
Queen Victoria's son-in-law, Prince Henry of Battenberg, 
lost his life from fever. Colonel Baden-Powell, now known 
as the hero of Mafeking, was then chief of staff to Sir 
Francis Scott, the British commander. Coomassie, the 
capital, was captured, and the Ashanti king was made 
prisoner and deported to the British colony of Sierra 
Leone, where " he no longer orders a human sacrifice 
before breakfast every morning, and no longer keeps up a 
harem of three thousand three hundred and thirty-three 
wives." 

During the past year the warriors of Ashanti, taking 
advantage of rumors that had reached them concerning 
British reverses in the Boer war, besieged Sir Frederick 
Hodgson, Governor of the African Gold Coast Colony in 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 453 

Coomassie. A relief expedition was despatched to him 
from the coast, but its different divisions made slow pro- 
gress. The Ashanti warriors adopted Boer tactics, and 
fired on the English troops from ambuscades as they ad- 
vanced. 

Among those shut up in Coomassie with Sir Frederick 
Hodgson were members of a missionary band from Switzer- 
land, three men and three women. Among them were the 
Rev. Mr. Ramseyer and his wife, who in 1893 had been 
prisoners in Coomassie of the Ashanti king, until they were 
rescued by Sir Garnet Wolseley. Mrs. Ramseyer had been 
chained by order of the king in the market-place and there 
exhibited to the populace for many days to be jeered at 
and insulted. 

News was received in London on July 5 that Sir Fred- 
erick Hodgson and some Europeans, men and women, had 
made their way through the besieging force and were pro- 
ceeding toward Cape Coast Castle. The news was brought 
to the relieving force by native messengers, who said that 
the party had lost lives in the attempt and had left in the 
place a small garrison. 

Rhodesia. At the close of the war with Lobengula the 
Matabele had not been thoroughly subdued. Some of 
their most powerful impis had hidden their arms instead 
of surrendering them. The chartered company, in order 
to punish them severely, took charge of all their cattle. 
No man might buy cattle from a native without a permit 
from the magistrate of the district, but after a time this 
order was relaxed ; fifty-five per cent of their cattle were 
restored to the natives, the Government retaining the re- 
mainder. When the late warriors were thus impoverished, 
the company insisted that they must go to work for the 
support of their families. They never had worked ; manual 
labor they considered suitable only for women. Especially 
they dreaded employment underground in the gold mines. 
Then came a short crop, a plague of locusts, and the rin- 
derpest. Their witch doctors persuaded them that these 
calamities were brought upon them by the white settlers. 



454 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

They had arms concealed. They rose in revolt all over 
Matabeleland, and the local police, recruited from among 
the bravest warriors in the force of Lobengula, joined the 
insurgents with their rifles. Farms were raided ; white 
men were massacred. All, with their wives and children, 
hastened to take refuge in Bulawayo, and other towns. 
Troops were sent from Cape Colony, Bechuanaland, and 
Natal. President Kruger offered Mr. Chamberlain a force 
of Boers. This was not long after the Jameson Raid. 
Mr. Chamberlain, however, declined the assistance offered 
him by Mr. Kruger, saying that he thought he had quite 
force enough to cope with Kaffirs. The insurgents, on 
the arrival of British troops with Maxims, retreated to the 
hills. There Burnham, the celebrated American scout, 
made his way into a cave and shot the most venerated of 
their witch doctors as he was engaged in incantations. By 
degrees, as the Matabele found themselves worsted, they 
went back to their kraals, and warfare ceased. 

The Chartered Company at once resolved to push on 
the building of railroads, the main line to Bulawayo, and 
a branch line into Bechuanaland to Khama's capital. The 
opening of the road from Capetown to Bulawayo was a 
very great occasion. Guests were invited all the world 
over,«>among them Sir Henry Stanley, who has written a 
very interesting little book about what he saw on the occa- 
sion, together with his impressions of Johannesburg and 
South Africa in general. From what he writes, no one 
would for one moment imagine that Bulawayo and Jo- 
hannesburg had within twelve months been the scenes of 
bloody war and tumult. There must be a wonderful re- 
cuperative power in these very young cities. 

Three hundred white men in Matabeleland were massa- 
cred in cold blood during these months, besides those who 
perished fighting. By April 13, Dr. Jameson had been 
succeeded, as Administrator of Rhodesia, by Lord Grey, 
one of the founders of the Chartered Company, and Sir 
Frederick Carrington was made military commander. 

Before entering on his office. Lord Grey disposed of all 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 455 

his pecuniary interest in the Chartered Company, whicli 
adopted an ordinance thenceforth prohibiting any em- 
ployee of the company from holding stock in its shares. 
Mr. Rhodes resigned his presidency of the company in 
May, 1896, and went to Rhodesia, as a private citizen, where 
he was active in suppressing the revolt of the Matabele. 

Bechuanaland. This division of South Africa was a 
crown colony until 1895, when it became a protectorate, 
and sent deputies to the Federal Parliament at Capetown. 
Its capital, the residence of its governor, was Vryburg. In 
Vryburg, in 1885, the Boers had attempted to set up a small 
republic, which was suppressed by an expedition under 
Sir Charles Warren. A strip of Bechuanaland, lying along 
the frontier of Orange Free State and the Transvaal, 
was cut off by the British Government and placed under 
more immediate British control and protection, in order 
to give the Government and its Chartered Company 
an exclusive right to control the projected railroad from 
Cape Colony to Rhodesia, and also the diamond fields at 
Kimberley. 

In 1890, it was proposed to annex Bechuanaland to Cape 
Colony ; but Cape Colony was not willing to incur expense 
and accept responsibility. It was, however, annexed in 
1895, the native chiefs retaining jurisdiction over their 
own tribes. The people of Bechuanaland opposed the 
policy which converted their country from a crown colony 
into a protectorate, for they dreaded being made over to 
the South African Company, which in fact was the design 
of the English Government. 

There has been a great deal said about the treatment 
of certain natives who, encouraged by the Boers, rose 
against the English Government, and who, when subdued, 
were offered their choice, either to be sent to Cape Colony 
and indentured for five years to farmers, or to be tried for 
treason. About two thousand preferred to be indentured 
servants (which means slaves) in Cape Colony. 

Mr. de Toit, a distinguished native of Cape Colony, trav- 
elling through Bechuanaland a few years since, bestowed 



456 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

great praise on the people of Khama, the Christian chief. 
He said that on encountering Khama's people, he was struck 
at once by the contrast between them and other Kaffirs. 
He speaks highly of their courtesy, their temperance, their 
consideration for women, their observance of Sunday, and 
their honesty as traders. They make the best transport 
riders, he says, and are more to be depended on than other 
natives. The black races of Bechuanaland would have 
willingly fought as allies of the English in the late war, but 
all offers of such service were declined. The Boers, how- 
ever, had no scruple in invading their kraals. 

Cape Colony. This is the southernmost extremity of 
the African continent. It is governed in the first place by 
the British High Commissioner for South Africa, who 
resides at Capetown ; in the second place, it has a Gov- 
ernor who is assisted by a Parliament composed of a Legis- 
lative Council and a House of Assembly. The Legislative 
Council, or Upper House, consists of 26 members, 
chosen for seven years. The House of Assembly has 79 
members, chosen for five years. All male citizens, white 
or black, may vote for members of this Lower House, 
provided they register their names, occupations, and ad- 
dresses with their own hands, are householders living in 
a house worth j[^i'>„ or have a salary of ^50 a year. This 
law is supposed to exclude the illiterate and vagrants ; but 
any voting of Kaffirs is utterly distasteful to the white in- 
habitants of Cape Colony descended from the Dutch. 

The office of Prime Minister is the most important in 
the colony. Mr. Rhodes held it up to 1896, but resigned 
it when accused of complicity in the Jameson Raid ; he 
was succeeded by Sir Gordon Sprigg, and the office was 
subsequently held by Mr. Schreiner. A few words ought 
to be said here about what is called the Afrikander Bond. 
In plain English, the name means " The League of Native 
South African People ; " but popularly it is supposed to be 
an anti-loyal association composed of Boer sympathizers. 
This, however, can hardly be the case. The founder of 
the Bond, Mr. de Toit, was not by any means disloyal to 



OTHER NOTES ON AFRICA 457 

the English Government ; his son's book describing a 
journey through Rhodesia says : — 

" Let us not ignore the guidance of Providence. God has given 
England as our guardian, — a more considerate one than Israel 
found in Pharaoh ; and we had need of England, especially 
of English capital and English enterprise. What would the 
colony have done with its diamond and gold fields if England 
had not furnished the millions by which the mines were opened 
and worked ? We have not the money for all this. God has 
appointed England to educate us as a nation and to open our 
country for us." 

There has been no disposition on the part of the British 
Government to deal harshly with those Boer sympathizers 
in Natal and Cape Colony who are legally rebels, many 
among them having borne arms against England in the 
war. Some have been tried for treason, pour encourager 
les autres, but none have been executed. Lord Roberts, 
finding that extreme leniency resulted in treachery, made 
a proclamation after the capture of Pretoria, telling those 
who had taken the oath of allegiance to England, and were 
found to have violated it, that if taken they would be 
treated as prisoners of war. 

The Boer prisoners, as I have said, were sent to Ceylon 
and St. Helena. The climate in both is healthy, and 
they have no reason to complain, though the relatives of 
certain Americans who had joined the Boers endeavored 
to excite the sympathy of the English Government in their 
friends' behalf. 

Longwood at St. Helena is no longer what it was like 
when Napoleon died there ; and some other residence must 
have been assigned to General Cronj6. In 1858, the old 
house at Longwood, with three acres of land, and also 
twenty-three acres in the Vale where Napoleon was buried, 
were purchased by the English Government from the pri- 
vate owners and conveyed to the Emperor of the French 
and his heirs in perpetuity. Both Longwood and the tomb 
are looked after by a French gentleman who is a civil 
servant of the French Government. 



458 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Perhaps we may best end this chapter with this record 
of how England can treat the memory of a vanquished 
enemy; and we may hope not only for pacification in 
South Africa, but for reconciliation with the Boers. 

Alsace is growing reconciled to German rule ; our own 
Confederate States are becoming reconciled to the Federal 
Union, — why may not a similar thing occur in South 
Africa? Up to the present time, the Boers have cherished 
old traditions of how British rule, more than sixty years 
ago, roused their grandfathers and fathers to trek into the 
wilderness. But sixty years have, in the world outside the 
Transvaal, and especially in England, made great changes, 
as we have seen in the chapter on the Diamond Jubilee. 
These changes the Boers do not understand, nor have they 
kept pace with them even in imagination. 



ITALY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

Chapter I. Italy. 

" II. Austria-Hungary. 



Part W 
ITALY AND AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

CHAPTER I 

ITALY 

IV /TY " Italy in the Nineteenth Century " may be said to 
■'■'-'■ have abruptly broken off at the first days of 1897, 
when an armistice with Abyssinia had been signed, and 
Victor Emmanuel, the young heir of the kingdom of Italy, 
had just married the Princess Elena of Montenegro. 

In the narrative I had included a brief sketch of the 
affairs of Austria during the same period, the history of 
those two countries intersecting and overlapping each 
other; but since 1897 this is not the case, so in this section 
of my book — Italy and Austria-Hungary — I have put 
what little I have to say of the two countries into separate 
chapters. The reason why I have not complied with the 
many requests made to me by strangers and by my friends 
to complete the series by writing " Germany in the Nine- 
teenth Century," I have told in the Prefatory Note to this 
volume. 

The history of Italy and the history of Austria-Hungary 
during the past four years l^ave been singularly similar in 
their main features. Each country has had a terrible 
tragedy ; both countries have had rulers anxious to promote 
the welfare of their people, but these rulers have been 
hampered and discouraged by the unruly behavior of their 
respective Parliaments. 

In both countries the floors of the legislative assemblies 
have been used, not for debate on questions of national 



462 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

importance, but for fierce personal and racial quarrels, 
finished up sometimes by fisticuffs and howls. In both 
Parliaments racial animosities display themselves without 
restraint. In Austria especially, there is hereditary an- 
tagonism between Germans, Poles, Slavs, Czechs, and 
Magyars ; in Italy the difference is between the Northern 
and the Southern races, — the Lombards and the Tuscans 
on the one part, on the other the Sicilians. This antag- 
onism is constantly displaying itself, to the despair of 
every Minister who wishes to see legislation promote his 
country's good. 

The population of Italy is about thirty-one millions. 
The personnel of its effective army and navy in time of 
peace may be roughly stated as a quarter of a million ; but 
the great strain on the resources of Italy is not the army 
she can put into the field, but the immense number of 
men enlisted for home service, — her militia, her military 
police, etc. The grand total of her enlisted men is the 
almost incredible number of 3,257,491 ; in other words, 
one-tenth of her whole population, including women and 
children. 

It may possibly be said in defence of this system that 
men who receive government pay are not likely to take 
part against the Government, are under some discipline, 
and will not in case of a disturbance join the ranks of the 
revolutionists. 

It is impossible to predict what may any day happen in 
Italy. Its people are exasperated by small tyrannies, 
which enter into the daily life of all, but most into that of 
the humbler classes. Such is the system of octroi (money 
paid for permission to bring food of any kind into a city) 
which has created more than one dangerous disturbance in 
Sicily. The municipal system of levying heavy fines for 
comparatively trifling offences is one of the vexations that 
incite revolutionary feeling; all the more because the 
youth and manhood of Italy have been reared to venerate 
Mazzini, Garibaldi, Ugo Foscolo, and their contemporaries 
as their national heroes, even as American boys and girls 



ITALY 463 

are brought up to look on Washington — his life and his 
principles — as the polar star of their Republic. Now 
whether veneration for these men be well or ill founded, 
wise or unwise, it has been taught as a creed to Italians of 
the present day. How can people be blamed, therefore, 
who find it hard to see why principles and opinions that 
were heroic in their fathers' days have now become crime 
and treason? 

Certain statistics are brought forward to prove that Italy 
is rapidly growing rich, faster in proportion than France ; 
but this is due to the industrial activity of the northern part 
of Italy, especially in Milan. It is also true that there as 
elsewhere, where the material prosperity of the working 
class is increased, political restlessness and discontent with 
the existing conditions of society become more active. 
This is known to be the case even in America when a time 
of prosperity sets in for mines or railroads. 

The increase of wealth in Italy by manufactures and 
commerce does not affect the peasantry, the class the most 
oppressed by unequal, burdensome taxation, 

A wise government, a reasonable parliament, a dynasty 
that deserves and can obtain affection and respect, together 
with a new system of taxation which should relieve daily 
life — especially that of the rustic class — from paltry vexa- 
tions, may in time consolidate United Italy. At present 
the North is not in heart with the South, though they live 
under the same government. 

It has been said recently by an Italian writing on the 
politics of his country tlftit " the ultra and law-defying 
parties flourish on the misgovernment of the law-abiding 
ones. The worse the administration is, the more recruits it 
gets, and vice versa. As general misery and lack of con- 
fidence in the Government increase, the hope declines of 
finding a remedy in existing institutions." 

Party feeling, and not patriotism, controls the debates in 
Parliament. Within the last twenty-five years the various 
administrations (for no ministry lasts long), " have opened 
the way for wild speculations, schemes for building railways, 



464 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

and rebuilding cities for the multiplication of government 
offices, and for the expenditure of those milliards which are 
now transformed into a national debt." 

No ministry stays in office long enough to inspire and 
carry out any real reforms. Those that have attempted 
it have been speedily upset by a crisis brought about by 
party feeling, and by the selfish aspirations of ambitious 
politicians. 

The Kingdom of Italy, like all parvemis, has been very 
anxious to be admitted into the best society, and to secure 
that end has been willing to make sacrifices. Throughout 
her history in the last thirty years she has constantly shown 
her desire to be acknowledged one of the Six Great Powers. 
As such, she figured in the settlement of the affairs of Crete ; 
as such, she is now desirous of having her influence ac- 
knowledged in the affairs of China. Happy, I should say, 
is the country that can keep outside the Concert of the 
Great Powers, which during the last ten years has been 
perplexing and obstructive to every one of them. And yet 
a weak country, not allied with the Great Powers, is liable 
to have its outlying provinces rent from it, — if anybody 
wants them, — as has been the case with Spain during the 
last two years; as it was with Austria- Hungary in the past, 
and as it probably will be with Turkey and Morocco in the 
future. The Triple Alliance gives Italy a certain protec- 
tion in case any Power wishes to do her wrong, or to inter- 
fere in her internal administration. 

It is said that in the early days of the Triple Alliance, 
Emperor William suggested to King Humbert to reduce his 
army by one hundred thousand men. But the King was 
then ambitious of colonial expansion; he wanted a large 
army to establish his protectorate over Abyssinia, and it was 
not until that scheme had failed, and had cost millions, that 
he was willing to reduce the number of his fighting men. 

There have been bread riots and much misery, during 
the time of which we have to write, among the peasantry 
in Italy, especially among those of Sicily and the southern 
part of the Peninsula. One reason given for the failure of 



ITALY 465 

the crops in that part of Italy is the destruction of forests, 
which diminishes not only the rainfall, but the supply of 
birds, which are also destroyed wholesale to supply the 
meat markets and the milliners of northern cities. The 
birds are no longer sufficient to keep down the swarms of 
insects destructive to the crops of the country. 

In 1896, the Crispi ministry had given place to that of 
the Marquis di Rudini (also a Sicilian), in consequence 
of the disasters in Abyssinia. Rudini had been leader 
of the Conservative party; he was credited with Catholic 
sympathies ; but though he was brought into power by a 
great majority in Parliament, he soon found that that 
majority contained only a minority of his own friends. 
What those who voted for him wanted was not he or 
his policy, but to get rid of Crispi. It was very hard to 
form a cabinet out of factions hostile to the Premier, and 
Rudini had to sacrifice his convictions to expediency at 
every turn. 

On April 22, 1897, as King Humbert was driving on the 
Roman racecourse, an anarchist named Acciarito, a native 
of Artegna, rushed at his carriage, sprang on the step, and 
with a dagger that he held concealed in a handkerchief 
aimed at the King. By a quick movement the King struck 
the man's wrist with his elbow, and the assassin was seized 
by soldiers of the King's escort. " These are the little 
perquisites of our profession," remarked Humbert, calmly. 
Alas that three years later he had to pay a far heavier 
price for what both he and his father called, half in jest and 
half in earnest, their " profession" ! In Italy, as in Switzer- 
land, murder or an attempt to murder is not a capital 
crime ; the criminal can only be imprisoned for life, but 
his imprisonment may be made a lifelong torture to him, 
should his jailers consider the sentence disproportioned to 
the crime. Acciarito was sent for life to the galleys, and 
like Bresci, three years after, received his sentence with a 
shout for anarchy, crying out that a revolutionary govern- 
ment would soon set him free. 

The police, though forewarned by the father of the 
30. 



466 I- AST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

criminal, had taken no precautions to protect the King ; 
but, roused by popular indignation into sudden energy, it 
arrested a man on suspicion of being an accomplice, 
who, a few mornings afterwards, was found dead in his cell. 
The police said it was a case of suicide, but an investiga- 
tion proved that he could not have died by his own hand. 

In the year 1897, twenty-eight Republicans were elected 
to Parliament, their Republicanism being vaunted and 
avowed. The amount of concessions the Prime Minister 
was obliged to give to the leaders of a party whose views 
were opposed to his own principles, was very great. His 
foreign Minister was the Marquis Visconti-Venosta, who, not 
daring to break openly with the foreign policy of Signor 
Crispi, only quoted the King's words, " We shall remain 
faithful to our alliances." 

It was in the autumn of 1896 that the treaty with King 
Menelik was signed by which Italy gave up all claim to 
establish a protectorate over Abyssinia, and retained only 
Massowah, a port on the Red Sea, and the strip of coast 
country called Eritrea, which she did not relinquish, 
because, as she said, it might lead to international 
complications. 

With five other Powers, in 1897, Italy took part in the 
naval demonstration on the coast of Crete, and at one 
time her admiral counnandetl the allied fleets before 
Canea, A band of ex-Garibaldian soldiers went with great 
enthusiasm to Greece, under the command of Ricciotti 
Garibaldi. Two of their leaders, both socialist deputies 
in the Italian Parliament, were killed or wounded at 
Domoko, where the Italians fought bravely, but could 
not save the fortunes of the day. 

Although Catholics took no outward or visible part in 
Italian politics, they did a good deal in the way of influence 
on the eve of an election, and allowed public meetings to 
be held in many of the churches. To these meetings the 
Marquis di Rudini was compelled to put a stop, though 
they were held more or less in his interest. Revision of 
assessment as a basis of taxation (which was already very 



ITAL Y 467 

oppressive) took place early in the winter of 1S98, when 
twenty thousand persons marched to the residence of the 
Prime Minister in Rome, as a popular demonstration 
against any increase in their taxes. They were repulsed 
by soldiers, and by the police, who fired on them, and the 
attack was responded to with stones. The affair, however, 
ended with instructions to the assessors to mitigate the 
severity of their exactions. 

Uefore the work of Tarliament was closed a scandal was 
brought to light whose discovery gave great satisfaction to 
almost all the numerous groups in the disunited chamber. 
Signor Crispi was accused of having received five hundred 
thousand lire from Signor Favilla, a defaulting director in 
the Bank of Bologna. The law courts decided that they 
had no right to try a Minister for acts committed during the 
time he was in ofiice, and Signor Crispi, having satisfac- 
torily settled that point, himself, demanded a parliamentary 
investigation. The result of this investigation by a commit- 
tee was a decision that while Signor Crispi had committed no 
crime for which he could be prosecuted by common law, his 
conduct was deserving of the censure of the Chamber. He 
had received, while in office, five hundred thousand lire 
from Signor Favilla, which he acknowledged he had spent 
in the secret service of the state. He had paid the money 
back, though in a very irregular way, having partly used for 
that purpose funds that had been voted to suppress brig- 
andage in Sicily. 

Early in the year 1898, formidable bread riots broke out 
all over Italy. The poor in some parts of the country were 
suffering terribly. They demanded the repeal of the tax on 
wheat and flour ; but the riots were encouraged by disaf- 
fected politicians, both clerical and revolutionary. Martial 
law was proclaimed in nearly all the Italian cities ; men 
were killed in the streets ; soldiers were called out, who fired 
on the mob, and here and there they were driven back 
with such weapons as came to hand. 

The Government was convinced that while want of bread 
was the ostensible cause of the insurrection, it had been 



468 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

secretly the work of political parties. The friends of the 
Pope and of his temporal power were credited with a wish 
to see the Savoy Government overthrown, and a Federal 
Republic established in Italy, This, they were supposed to 
believe, would lead to the restoration of the Pope's sov- 
ereignty in Rome, and possibly even the States of the 
Church might be restored to the Papacy. 

When the revolt was subdued, which was not done with- 
out great difficulty, the penalties pronounced on the 
offenders were very severe. Large numbers of rioters had 
been arrested, tried by courts martial, and sentenced to im- 
prisonment with hard labor. Ecclesiastics were con- 
demned to imprisonment for five or six years. Many who 
dreaded arrest escaped to Switzerland or to the Tyrol, and 
some apparently sought refuge in Paterson, New Jersey. 
Among those who fled to Switzerland, where their presence 
was a great embarrassment to the Government, was the man 
who became the assassin of the Empress Elizabeth of Austria. 

The Prime Minister of Italy at the time of the riots was 
General Pelloux, who had succeeded the Marquis di Rudini, 
after that statesman had resigned finally. Several times 
already he had continued to hold the office of Prime Min- 
ister after his resignation, though he started on each occasion 
with a new Cabinet. General Pelloux was not a politician, 
but a soldier who had the courage of his convictions. He 
was determined to restore order in his country, and by his 
straightforward honesty he effected more than could have 
been done by many a more experienced statesman. He 
accompanied the King on a visit to the Island of Sardinia, 
and while there, by a bold stroke, secured the bands of 
brigands who had infested the country. 

Italy grew anxious not to be left out of the European 
concert in China, and demanded a naval station on San 
Mun Bay. This was at once refused, though the request 
had been backed by England, and Italy withdrew her am- 
bassador and his attaches from Pekin, which assuredly they 
do not regret at the present day. 

Thus ended the year 1899, and to all appearance 1900 



ITAL Y 469 

opened peacefully. The royal family were acquiring popu- 
larity. The King had remitted, or shortened, many of the 
sentences pronounced on the late rioters. When the Gov- 
ernment voted one hundred thousand lire for the relief 
of the poor, he gave one hundred and fifty thousand out 
of his own funds. The young Montenegrin Princess of 
Naples was affable and kindly; Queen Margherita was 
always admired and beloved ; the heir to the throne, if the 
Prince of Naples should have no children, is the Duke 
d'Aosta, son of the ex-king Amadeo, the second son of Victor 
Emmanuel, who renounced the crown of Spain. He had won 
golden opinions in the Italian army by defending its honor 
against the attacks made on it by Prince Henri of Orleans. 
His younger brother, the Duke d'Abruzzi, was acquiring re- 
nown as an explorer, having ascended the high snow peaks 
of Alaska. Eight months later he has come back from an 
interesting and successful expedition in the Arctic Regions. 
Says " The Outlook " : — 

" It will be remembered by readers of Nansen's thrilling 
record of his Polar expedition, that the point nearest to the 
North Pole reached by him and his single companion in their 
over-ice journey after leaving the ice-bound ' Fram,' was latitude 
86° 14'. Now an Italian expedition has slightly overpassed this 
mark on the way to the Pole. There is only a difference of 
about twenty miles between the two records, as the point 
reached by the Abruzzi explorers was 86° 33' ; but, for the 
present at least, Italy holds the honor of having penetrated 
farthest into the great rough ice-pack which occupies the space 
years ago allotted by geographers to a mythical ' open Polar 
sea.' . . . The vessel was driven upon the land, and thence a 
party under Captain Cagni undertook a sledge journey north, 
reached the point named above, and returned to the ship after 
one hundred and four days' absence. . . . The Duke himself 
was severely frostbitten, and was unable to accompany the 
sledge expedition. In view of this Italian achievement Ameri- 
cans will await with keen interest the reports from Lieutenant 
Peary's expedition which may soon be here." 

But we cannot, alas ! deny that the bright hopes enter- 
tained for an emancipated Italy in the early years of her 



470 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE A'TH CENTURY 

independence have, like those cherished seventy-five years 
ago for Greece, been greatly disappointed. The Italians 
themselves are disappointed too. 

" Their freedom, so far as material prosperity, moral growth, 
and political progress are concerned, has seemed to be almost 
a mockery. As a matter of fact, Italy has been overweighted 
by adverse conditions. King Humbert, though less forceful 
than his father, is a brave and honest man, concerning whose 
patriotic devotion there has never been a question; but King 
Humbert has never had a chance to rule a united people. . . . 
The Government is responsible for the fatal policy of trying to 
make a great military power of Italy, and of so overloading the 
struggling people that it is said that out of every five dollars a 
man pays three dollars for taxes of various kinds." ^ 

" In Italy he pays most who has least, and no less than half of 
the amount levied by the Government is met by the poor man. 
For instance, the saddle-horse and the four-in-hand of the 
wealthy citizen pay nothing at all, the reason given being that 
these represent expense without profit, while the ass and the mule 
of the peasant (in substance, instruments of labor) have to pay, 
the reason given being that, by carrying produce to market and 
by pulling the plough, they represent expense with profit. Under 
this system, the Italian peasant is probably the most heavily taxed 
man in Europe, and yet Italy is certainly the poorest state. . . . 
Every department of the public service is insufficiently main- 
tained, besides which, Italian hospitals, schools, libraries, and 
laboratories are more or less in need of essentials. New debts 
are impossible for Italy, and new taxes even more so. But by 
reduction of expenses, ten years' efforts have finally succeeded in 
a balancing of accounts." ^ 

In the summer of the year 1900, the Prince of Naples 
and his wife set out on a yacht voyage on the Mediterranean ; 

1 " The Outlook," 4 June, 1898. 

2 " The Outlook," 31 March, 1900. An illustration of the pitifully 
small economies resorted to by the Italian Government is given by a 
recent traveller in Italy. He had occa.sion in a country town to send 
a package of manuscript by post to England. The postmaster 
weighed it in his scales for weighing sausage. " Have you no proper 
scales ?" said the traveller. "I had once," replied the postmaster, 
"but the Government has made me send them back, saying we should 
not need them much, and they were wanted for another post-office." 




GENERAL PELLOUX. 



ITALY 471 

King Humbert and the Queen went as usual to their favorite 
summer residence, a villa near Monza, a city in Lorabardy, 
not very far from Milan. 

On July 30, 1899, King Humbert drove into Monza to 
be present at a gymnastic exhibition by students in the 
playground of their gymnasium. The King and the pro- 
fessors had places on a platform that had been erected for 
their accommodation. 

The King expressed himself greatly pleased with the 
performance, and waited to assist in the distribution of 
prizes. When this was over, he shook hands with all 
the professors, and stepped down from the platform to get 
into his carriage. A great crowd was waiting to see him 
as he left the gymnasium, and he was received with loud 
cheers. His last words were in response to these accla- 
mations, " Grazie, amici " (Thank you, friends) . They had 
hardly passed his lips when a sharp sound was heard. The 
crowd thought it was some foolish fire-cracker. Then 
another, and the King sank down. The crowd could then 
see what had happened, and at once there was an inde- 
scribable commotion. It was so sudden, so unexpected, 
so horrible, that people apparently lost their heads. Some, 
however, seized the murderer, and would have torn him to 
pieces, but for the carbineers, who felt it to be their duty 
to protect him. " The crowd wanted to lynch him on the 
spot," says the Italian paper from which I copy this account, 
and, greatly to my surprise, it uses our American word Ital- 
ianized, voleva linciarlo. 

The murderer's name was Gaetano Bresci. He boasted 
of his anarchism, and carelessly answered the questions put 
to him by the public prosecutor. He was born in the little 
town of Prato in November, 1869, and in his pocket was a 
passport by which they saw he had recently come from 
America. There, at Paterson, New Jersey, he had left his 
wife, telling her he was going back to Italy to see his 
parents. She seemed, to the Paterson police, an honest, 
hard-working, inoffensive woman. In Italy there were all 
sorts of rumors about Gaetano Bresci, and every police 



472 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

record was searched for anything that might be found 
against any man who bore that name. One was discovered 
at Palermo, who had been condemned to imprisonment for 
anarchism under Crispi, but had been pardoned out by 
Rudini. There was no reason to think that this was the 
same man. 

The American poUce and detectives were put on the 
qui Vive, and, for a week or ten days, we heard much in the 
newspapers about the Itahan anarchists in New Jersey, plots 
to assassinate kings and presidents, etc. But with more 
judicious reserve than our papers generally show in criminal 
cases, the subject was soon suffered to drop, and anarchists 
will not be able to learn from the public prints what detec- 
tives are doing to countermine them. 

The dying King was driven to the Villa di Monza, where 
his wife awaited him. He had received two wounds ; one 
bullet had passed through his ribs and struck his heart, 
the other had gone through his throat. Both wounds were 
fatal. 

Under the platform where the King had been standing 
was found another pistol. 

The murderer was tried as soon after the offence as 
possible. No defence could be made. The man gloried 
in his crime; he showed no evidence of insanity; nor could 
the police trace any connection he had had with anarchist 
societies. He was condemned to imprisonment with hard 
labor for life, ten years in solitary confinement ; but he 
prophesied he would soon be free, when Italy should make 
another revolution.^ 

But one good thing the hateful crime has done ; it has 
awakened a united feeling throughout Italy. In every 
town, in every village, on the receipt of one short stupefying 
telegram from Monza, there was exhibited the most as- 
tounding unanimity of sentiment, and, what is perhaps more 
remarkable, the same phraseology in which to express it. 

My son was in Venice shortly after the catastrophe, and 

1 We read horrible accounts of the severity of his imprisonment. 
Far better if, like his victim, he had been killed. 



ITALY 



473 



he told me that the savage indignation expressed among 
the working class against the murderer was almost frightful. 

Especially has deep sympathy been excited for Queen 
Margherita, who, in response to a letter of condolence 
addressed to her by the Cardinal Archbishop of Naples, 
signs herself simply povera donna. The Pope, too, while 
he refused to recognize the new King of Italy, Victor 
Emmanuel III., as anything more than King of Sardinia, 
sent kindly messages to the Queen ; and a touching prayer 
composed by her as she sat by the corpse of her husband 
was read in all the churches. The conduct of the funeral 
services at Rome was arranged with the Cardinal Vicar, and 
the Roman clergy in great numbers were present at the 
funeral. 

Patriotic, honest, generous, and kindly, King Humbert 
had no personal enemies. When a previous assassin at- 
tempted to stab him, he gave as his motive that the King 
was rich and comfortable, while he himself was miserable 
and poor. 

The crime of regicide has grown frightfully common, and 
the character of the sovereign seems no protection. The 
motives that formerly impelled such assassins have changed. 
Formerly the regicide had some fanatical idea of vengeance, 
or he was carried out of himself by enthusiasm for some 
cause which might, in his opinion, be promoted by the 
removal of his selected victim. But now it is not apparent 
that the anarchist who commits the outrage, or the person 
who induces him to commit it, has anything to gain by the 
crime or much choice as to the victim. Leaving out of the 
question the impulse for imitation and the desire for noto- 
riety, we still find ourselves confronted by a vague and ap- 
parently an attractive belief disseminated among the lowest 
class in many cities which it is utterly out of our power to 
understand. 

The rulers and royal personages whom these people try 
to kill are, at the present time, exceptionally respectable. 
To this there is among the European royalties who of late 
years have been shot at, but one exception. During the 



474 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

last ten years of the nineteenth century, President Carnot 
has been killed in France, the Empress Elizabeth of Austria 
in Switzerland, Senor Canovas in Spain, and King Humbert 
in Italy. King Milan of Servia has been shot at, the Prince 
of Wales, the Shah of Persia, and President Faure. Alex- 
ander 111. and the present Czar have narrowly escaped 
railway wrecks, planned for their destruction. Even the 
young and gentle girl Queen of Holland has been threat- 
ened, and (they say) President McKinley. The police of 
Holland and of the United States are taking extraordinary 
precautions to protect their rulers. 

In almost all of these late incidents, the attempt to 
assassinate has been made when the intended victiai was 
driving in a carriage. I remember in 1840 how Louis 
Philippe always rode in a carriage with his back to the 
horses, because it might be more difficult for an assassin to 
take good aim at him with a revolver or a rifle. A writer 
in the " Spectator " has suggested that as the real danger 
for a sovereign is out of doors, it should be reduced to a 
minimum by bullet-proof carriages. 

" The best carriage for the purpose is the motor car which 
William II. has just purchased, for as weight matters compara- 
tively little, it can have steel sides. Its speed, too, would be- 
wilder any ordinary marksman." 

Here then is, unexpectedly, a new use to which may be 
put one of the unpleasant inventions of modern progress 
and civilization. 

With regard to the present political position in Italy, and 
its possible future, a few words may be quoted from the 
" Nation " of August 30, 1900, written by Mr. W. J. Stillman 
of Surrey, England, long a resident in Rome. With the 
highest appreciation of King Humbert, as a man, a patriot, 
and a gentleman, he thinks the King failed greatly as a 
ruler, and by his system of laisser /aire promoted " the 
growth of socialism and anarchy." Mr. Stillman adds : 

" From what I know of the new King, Victor Emmanuel III., 
I believe he will be a sterner guardian of the prerogatives of the 



I 
I 



ITALY 475 

crown than his father was, and that his ideal of a sovereign is 
rather his grandfather. And he will do what his father never 
did, viz., listen to the counsels of Queen Margherita, who had 
always a higher standard of royal conduct than Humbert. But 
that any wisdom on the part of the sovereign can stop the 
decline, 1 do not believe. Italian politics are rotten, and the 
Parliament is the derision of the whole country. The legisla- 
ture, the bench, and the bar are to such a degree corrupt that 
no instrument of reform remains. The people would rejoice at 
the abolition of the elective chamber ; it has no faith in the 
justice of the courts or the honesty of the avvocati.^'' 

And yet the same writer in the same letter insists that 
the "crushing weight of ever-increasing taxation" is a 
fable ; that the Triple Alliance has not been an " oppres- 
sive burthen," that " Italy is rapidly growing rich, faster in 
proportion than France," and he adds, what all other testi- 
mony confirms, that the growth of socialism and anarchy is 
most rapid in the most prosperous section of Italy; that is, 
in Milan and its surrounding country, where wealth and 
commercial activity are greatest, and the working classes 
are well to do. 

All the personages whom I regard with special interest 
as the contemporaries of my girlhood, and who achieved 
eminence either in statesmanship or literature, seem to me 
to have passed out of this world. There remain only — 
last leaves on the bough of the laurel bush — Queen Victoria 
and Pope Leo XIII. Both are now old, though they seem 
to retain the power to work ; and may they both live 
long and retain it ! Sometimes I think that we may be 
going back to the days of longevity — though Heaven for- 
bid that we should rival the Patriarchs (if their chronology 
is correct) who lived before the Flood. 

Pope Leo, however, is evidently growing feeble. The 
world, as well as his own Church, has reason to be thank- 
ful that he has lived so long. But the time must come, in 
the early years of the twentieth century, when the Conclave 
will meet to appoint his successor. 

At present the Sacred College is composed of fifty-nine 
Cardinals, not seventy, which is the full number. The 



476 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Cardinals of the Curia are those who reside permanently in 
Rome, and take an active part in all the affairs of the 
Papacy. These Cardinals are said to be divided into three 
distinct parties. The largest desires the election of a Pope 
who will continue the policy of Leo XIII ; the second wishes 
a Pope who will take less interest in the affairs of State and 
be more absorbed in those of religion ; the third wishes to 
introduce reforms into the Church, and lead it back to the 
most pure sources of inspiration. 

The foreign Catholic Cardinals are numerous, and it is 
thought that they may turn the election, though it is certain 
that the successor of Leo XIII. must be an ItaUan. But as 
a two-thirds vote is necessary to elect a Pope, the number 
of foreign Cardinals will give them great influence on the 
election. Out of the thirty-one Italian Cardinals from 
whom the successor of Leo XIII. will in all probability be 
chosen, two names have been pointed out as those of 
prominent candidates, either of whom would be acceptable 
to the Church and the Powers. One is Cardinal Luigi 
Oreglia. He is a Piedraontese by birth, — a man now 
seventy-two years old, and has been a Cardinal over a 
quarter of a century — longer, indeed, than any other mem- 
ber of the Sacred College. He has held numerous high 
ecclesiastical and diplomatic offices, and is at present 
chamberlain of the Church, which would entitle him to 
manage its affairs during the interregnum between the 
death of Pope Leo and the consecration of his successor. 

The other prominent candidate is Cardinal Vannulelli 
Serafino, at present Bishop of Frascati, in whose cathedral is 
a monument to Charles Edward, the Young Pretender. He, 
too, has filled high offices and conducted diplomatic mis- 
sions, not only in European courts, but in South America. 
He is said to possess a large measure of prudence, as well 
as learning and piety. 

The successor of Leo XIII. is certain, by reason of his age, 
to be a man who was nurtured in the political traditions 
of old Italy before 1870. At least another generation must 
pass before the anti-Italian policy of the last twenty-nine 



ITALY 477 

years can be considered by the Pontiff a mistake, though 
already many CathoHcs in Italy are considering it so. 

Pope Leo has interested himself in the labor question, 
and during the last three years has addressed an encyclical 
to workingmen and their employers ; but the most impor- 
tant thing that he has done is to oppose what is called 
" Americanism." This was called forth by a book pub- 
lished by Father Hecker of New York, one of the Paulist 
Fathers, at one time editor of the " Catholic World." The 
Pope read the book, it is said, through a bad French trans- 
lation. Father Hecker, a man of great piety, wished to 
infuse into Catholics a spirit of progressiveness, that is, of 
active work for the Church. 

Americanism is the spirit of Martha diffused through the 
American nation. The Pope wishes to point out that we 
must not disparage the spirit of Mary. The Lord did 
not reprove Martha; He only assured His disciples that 
Mary was quite as much worthy of honor. America, in all 
things, is like Martha, anxious to serve, anxious to progress ; 
and Father Hecker sought to stimulate the Roman Catho- 
lics in America to carry this principle into Church work, 
and so increase the Church's vitality. Possibly he dispar- 
aged the silent life of prayer, of contemplation, and the 
cloister. I have not read his book, and do not know. 

But the Pope sent a letter to Cardinal Gibbons, caution- 
ing American Catholics against what he considered an in- 
cipient heresy. All the Roman Catholic bishops and arch- 
bishops, except two, in the United States, wrote earnest 
letters to the Pope disclaiming any heresy, or tendency 
to lapse into heresy, on their own part, or on that of the 
people under them. The two bishops who accepted the 
rebuke as just were the Bishop of New York and the Bishop 
of Milwaukee. 

When the Exhibition in Paris opened, and a statue of 
Lafayette, presented to France by American children, was 
inscribed, the Government at Washington appointed Arch- 
bishop Ireland of St. Paul to make the address, — a 
Catholic Prelate to republican and anti-clerical France ! 



478 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

But the archbishop's address was admirable, and his recep- 
tion in Paris was enthusiastic in the extreme. He even 
received the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 

He went also to Rome, — 1900 being the year of Jubilee, 
— and was received by Pope Leo with especial honor. 
The Holy Father told him that his object in the letter he 
had addressed to Cardinal Gibbons was not to cast any slur 
on American Catholics, but rather to caution the Catholics 
in Germany. Lastly, Bishop Spalding of Peoria, being in 
Rome on the 21st of March, 1900, was invited, by authority, 
to preach a serjuon de cluDite in one of the principal 
churches. He took for his text : " It is the spirit that 
quickeneth." He spoke of the importance of life in the 
Church ; he said that the nourishment of all life lies in 
education, and told his hearers that Our Lord, who came to 
teach us faith, hope, and charity, never uttered a word which 
could justify us in thinking that He regarded literature, phil- 
osophy, history, or natural science, as obstacles to true 
religion. 

" Monsignor Spalding," said a German newspaper, " is leav- 
ing the Eternal City, and it matters little to him how many 
panes he has broken in the windows of the Pharisees. But for 
the rest of us, who have had to wait for an American bishop to 
say what it was the duty of others to have said long ago, there 
comes into our minds a reflection saddening to those of the old 
world, that once more the last is lirst in the kingdom of God." 

The Pope has said emphatically that the death of King 
Humbert will make no change in the Papal policy with re- 
gard to the Kingdom of Italy. And yet a change is thought 
to be taking place silently, through which both parties. 
Church and State, may welcome a modus vivendi which 
would enable them to reunite — could such a thing be 
found. 

This year, being the Jubilee year, Rome has been crowded 
with pilgrims. I think a brief account of what an eye- 
witness saw there on one April day will, better than any- 
thing I can say, conclude this chapter. 



ITAL Y 479 

" Yesterday I was one of a dense crowd of pilgrims and stran- 
gers who filled the hall of St. Peter's and stood, waiting, expect- 
ant for the coming of the Holy Father. Pilgrims were there 
from all countries, come to visit the basihcas and pray at the 
tombs of the Apostles. Some of them were Belgians, humble 
worshippers from the towns, and simple country-folk ; others 
were from the neighborhood of Florence, the coniadiiii, whom 
Ruskin loved. Many more had travelled from Hungary and 
Croatia, lean men with long black hair, clad in bluish jerkins, 
colored sashes, and high boots, and women in embroidered 
bodices and short, full skirts, wearing the same high boots, to 
the great amusement of the Roman women, who pointed at 
them and laughed aloud. All waited patiently and good- 
humoredly for two hours, talking among themselves, and to 
their priests. To all appearance, there was not much devout 
abstraction in their minds, but there was no levity or irreverence. 
At last there was a movement of expectation, and the crowd 
swayed backwards and forwards, pressing inwards toward the 
barriers. Another interval, filled with a louder hum of voices, 
and then a storm of clapping of hands and loud cries of Viva il 
Papa f from every part of the church, and a cloud of white 
handkerchiefs fluttered over the people's heads. Then came 
what looked more like a vision than a reality, a small spare fig- 
ure in white, red, and gold, walking (as it seemed) upon the 
sea of heads. As the vision drew nearer, I recognized the well- 
known features of Leo XIII. I was prepared to find him ema- 
ciated and spiritual-looking, but I had not expected to see 
extreme old age and immortal youth combined in one person. 
Pius IX. was benign and fatherly, and the saying reported of 
him — 'An old man's blessing will not hurt you' — expressed 
him well. But in Leo XIII. there was no thought of personal 
dignity or good-humored condescension. Grace and courtesy 
may seem out of place when applied to a spiritual sovereign, but 
the gestures of Queen Victoria herself — ' Queen of all queens 
renowned' — have not more grace and courtesy than those of 
this ancient Italian gentleman. He stood upright, not sparing 
himself, during almost the whole of his progress through the 
nave, resting upon the arm of his chair, continually waving his 
arm with a long sweeping motion as he turned in blessing to 
right and left. He gazed with a look of intense and eager in- 
terest upon the upturned faces, seeming to see them individually, 
as if his thoughts were that he had power to confer a true bene- 
diction, and wished that every one present should receive it. No 
one who was there could help feeling that the Pope was acting 



480 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

as one inspired with the sense of an unique position and the 
bearer of a sacred mission to the world. . . . Leo XIII. will 
not recognize the son of King Humbert as King of Italy. But 
in the times of his successor or his successor's successor, it may 
be that the Leonine City, the Lateran, and Castel Gandolfo may 
be restored to the Popes in full sovereignty. Then the houses 
of the religious Orders will cluster round the Vatican in the 
Borgo, in that unhappy region to the west of the Tiber, where 
Cincinnatus lived of yore, and where now huge piles of empty 
houses mock the speculator. Then the Cardinals will come out 
again and glorify the sunshine ; the Pope's carriage will go 
about the streets; the dominion of the Papa Re will be as inde- 
pendent and as harmless to his bigger neighbors as Monaco or 
San Marino, whilst his spiritual sovereignty will shine out more 
triumphantly above the mists of political jealousy and claims, 
asserted, but not maintained, which now obscure it. This is 
an Utopian vision, but the event to which, if priests and states- 
men act with ordinary common sense, the course of affairs is 
tending."! 

1 " The Pilot," June 9, 1900. 



CHAPTER II 

AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 

TN 1896 there was held at Budapest a millennial festival, 
■*- embracing an exhibition of Hungarian products and 
manufactures. By that day Hungary had been a nation for 
one thousand years. The commemoration began on the 
second of May, and lasted until the third of November. 
The historical section of the exhibition was filled with 
treasures illustrating the history of Hungary, and of her 
various dependencies. The earliest records of the Hunga- 
rian nation were there to be seen in a Byzantine and an 
Arab manuscript. According to their writers, the Magyars 
were a tribe of Turkish nomads who, driven from their own 
territory by their more powerful countrymen, wandered 
westward till they reached Hungary, where they were in- 
vited to settle by King Arnulf of Bavaria, who wanted their 
military assistance. They lived in Hungary as nomadic 
warriors, making raids into the neighboring countries, 
whence they brought back prisoners, whom they forced to 
perform their agricultural labor. Toward the close of the 
tenth century they became Christians, and, blending to- 
gether the various races that had settled in the land, formed 
the Kingdom of Hungary. It was this event that they 
celebrated one thousand years later, in the spring and 
summer of 1896. 

The great fete was attended by the Emperor- King, who 
took a heartfelt share with his Hungarian subjects in their 
national rejoicing. He assisted at the unveiling of statues 
to men who once refused him their allegiance, and took a 
foremost part in the rejoicings of a people who had since 
learned to love and honor him, and who hailed his presence 
at their national rejoicing with hearts overflowing with 
thankfulness and enthusiasm. 

31 



482 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The occasion was also celebrated by the opening of the 
Danube for navigation, by the destruction of the Iron Gate, 
a chain of rocks on the great river between Ossova on the 
Hungarian bank and Gladova on that of Servia. The work 
of removing the rocks and widening the channel had taken 
several years, but on Sept. 27, 1896, Francis Joseph, to- 
gether with King Charles of Roumania, and King Alexander 
of Servia, pronounced the whole river navigable from its 
source to its mouth. Up to that time, for eighty miles, the 
Danube had been impracticable for anything but the very 
smallest craft, and even for them it was dangerous. In 
1900, steamers pass down without interruption the whole 
way, from Vienna to the Black Sea. 

But the empire, after this great achievement, was not 
long to be left in peace and joy. A year later, wild dis- 
order broke out in the Reichsrath in opposition to a bill 
that the premier was desirous to introduce, extending for a 
year the compact made in 1867 between Austria and Hun- 
gary, by which the expenses of the Dual Empire were to be 
divided between them. Austria was to pay 70 per cent, 
and Hungary, 30. Hungary had so greatly prospered that 
this division was pronounced by Austria unfair. For ten 
days in November, the Reichsrath was a scene of wild dis- 
order. The sittings of the House were virtually suspended. 
The Hungarian Ministers took part with the Austrian Min- 
istry, and issued from Budapest a proclamation assuring 
both peoples that the union of the two countries was indis- 
soluble. The factions in the Reichsrath who made the dis- 
turbance were groups forming parts of the Austrian Empire, 
Poles, Ruthenians, Czechs, and Slavs. The Prime Minister, 
Count Badeni, was threatened with impeachment, and 
resigned, but in April, 1898, was succeeded by Baron 
Gautsch, who after three months gave place to Count Thun, 
one of the foremost men in the Dual Empire. 

"The variety of elements of which the Austro-Hungarian 
Empire is composed is brought out by the nationality of its re- 
cent Premiers. Count Taaffe was of Irish descent, Prince 
Windischgratz and Count Kielmansegg were Germans, Count 



A USTRIA-HUNGAR Y 483 

Badeni was a Pole, Baron Gautsch was a German, and Count 
Thun a Czech." 



A Bohemian is called a Czech, much as we call an Irish- 
man a Celt. Count Than, therefore, represented the Bo- 
hemian element, the most restless and dissatisfied in the 
Austrian dominions. In his early life he had been regarded 
as a determined antagonist to German (that is, Austrian) in- 
fluence ; he even wanted to see Bohemia declared a sepa- 
rate kingdom like Hungary, and to have the Emperor 
Francis Joseph crowned its King at Prague. He was so well- 
known to favor a federation of kingdoms in the Austrian 
Empire, that when Count Taaffe made him Viceroy of Bo- 
hemia, its people were delighted, taking it as a sign that 
they would triumph over the Germans not only politically 
but socially. Count Thun, however, had accepted the Vice- 
royalty as a ruler of the people, not as the leader of a fac- 
tion. When mob violence broke out, he proclaimed martial 
law in Prague. When party spirit ran high in the Bohemian 
Landtag, or Legislative Assembly, on the subject of the use 
of the Bohemian language, — always a bone of contention 
between the Germans and the Czechs, — he began to read 
an official statement in German. A frightful outbreak of 
Bohemian indignation took place ; for a time bedlam 
reigned in the Chamber, but Count Thun went calmly on 
reading his speech. No one could hear it ; but the next 
day it was published, and proved so entirely satisfactory to 
all parties that Count Thun was at once the foremost 
man in the Empire in the opinion of the Bohemians. 

From 1898, however, to the present day, the scenes of 
disorder in the Reichsrath have been most discreditable, 
and the only thing to be said in their extenuation is that 
though such violence is evidence of the people's lack of 
political training, it may also be taken as a proof that they 
are going through the apprentice stage of their political 
education. It would be a dreadful misfortune to all 
Europe if the Dual Empire were to be dissolved. 

The language quarrel raged fiercely in 1899. Count 



484 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Badeni had made certain language decrees which demanded 
that all who were employed in the Imperial Civil Service 
in Bohemia should be obliged to prove a certain knowledge 
of the Bohemian language. This provoked the most bitter 
opposition from the Germans, and when Count Clery 
became Prime Minister, and repealed these decrees, the 
tables were turned, and the Czechs became the rioters and 
obstructors in place of the Germans. 

Every few weeks there was a new Premier ; but it is no 
use saying, Peace, peace, where there could be no peace. 
The distractions in Parliament have gone on sometimes 
more, sometimes less, to the present time. 

One thing ought to be mentioned before this section of 
our story is closed, and that is the wonderful success 
Austria has had in the government of her two ex-Turkish 
provinces, Bosnia and Hertzegovina ; no enterprise of the 
kind has proved so successful in the hands of any nation. 
One would hope Austria may acquire more Turkish pro- 
vinces when the " sick man " dies. 

We turn now to a far sadder subject, the domestic sor- 
rows of the head of the Austrian Empire. 

Francis Joseph was only eighteen when his uncle, the 
Emperor Ferdinand, abdicated in the height of a revolu- 
tion. Being conscientiously unwilling to break the oath that 
he had made as King of Hungary, when the crown of St. 
Stephen was placed upon his head, Ferdinand would take 
no part in reducing Hungary to the rank of an Austrian 
province. He therefore abdicated in favor of Francis 
Joseph, his nephew. This young Prince had already be- 
come popular with the Hungarians, having on some state 
occasion addressed them fluently in their own language. 
But very soon the Hungarians passed a declaration of 
independence, and marched their forces against Vienna. 
Lombardy and Venetia were also in revolt. There seemed 
no help possible for Francis Joseph but to call to his aid 
the army of two hundred thousand men which the Emperor 
Nicholas of Russia was only too ready to furnish him.^ 
1 " Italy in the Nineteenth Century," pp. 165-168. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 485 

As soon, however, as the rebels were subdued, the 
young Emperor began trying to efface the memory of his 
victory. 

" He freely granted to his people more than they had asked 
even with arms in their hands. All was conceded to them 
which is comprised in the conventional idea of modern 
' freedom,' and he had, moreover, the good sense to renounce 
those dreams of unification which had been cherished by some 
of his ancestors, the certain result of which would have been 
to perpetuate mutual grudges and intestine divisions. He 
granted autonomy to Hungary, and showed himself respectful 
to each and all of the racial traditions and aspirations, widely 
diverse, and also mutually hostile, which go to make up what 
has been called the harlequin coat of the Austro-Hungarian 
Empire." ^ • 

He lost his Kingdom of Lombardy in 1859, and 
Venetia seven years later, after the battle of Sadowa, which 
lost him preponderance in Germany. Almost at the same 
time a crushing domestic sorrow fell upon him : his beloved 
brother Maximilian, Emperor of Mexico, was captured at 
Quer^taro, and a few weeks after was shot. 

The mother of Francis Joseph was the Archduchess 
Sophia of Bavaria. She had two other sons : Maximilian, 
whose tragic history I have told in " France in the Nine- 
teenth Century," and the Archduke Karl Ludwig (or 
Charles Louis), who never took much part in politics, 
being of the stuff that monks are made of, rather than 
kings. The Archduchess Sophia was the sister of Ludo- 
vica, wife of Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. This lady had 
four daughters, gifted with extraordinary beauty ; three of 
them will live in history as noble women who seemed 
marked out for misfortune. These three were Elizabeth, 
Empress of Austria, the Queen of Naples (Daudet's 
heroine in " Les Rois en Exil"), and Sophia, Duchess ot 
Alengon. The fourth sister, the eldest, who had been 
selected by her relatives to be the bride of Francis Joseph, 

^ Article in " Les Annales " by a Diplomatist. Translated for the 
"Living Age," February 4, 1899. 



486 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

married the Duke of Thun and Taxis, after her cousin had 
deserted her for her younger sister Elizabeth. The brother 
of these ladies, Duke Charles Theodore, is known through- 
out Germany as a wonderful oculist, and has devoted his 
time and wealth to the establishment of hospitals. 

When Francis Joseph went to Bavaria on a wooing ex- 
pedition, to see his Aunt Ludovica and his cousins, he fell 
violently in love with the charms of Elizabeth, a girl too 
young to have been introduced into society, and insisted 
on having her for his wife. They were married without 
any interval for reflection. The match was extremely dis- 
tasteful to the Archduchess Sophia, who was mother of the 
bridegroom and aunt of the bride. She thought Elizabeth 
a mere child, incapable of exercising any good influence 
over her husband, unformed, uneducated, inexperienced, 
and flighty. She did not foresee that the young girl she so 
despised would develop into a very noble woman. Sophia 
was devoted to her son Franz ; she exercised great influence 
over him ; and in his perilous imperial career, she gave him 
much good advice from her observation and experience. I 
can never forget that to her almost maternal care the poor 
young Duke de Reichstadt (L'Aiglon) owed comfort and 
sympathy in his last illness ; but she was a harsh, intrigu- 
ing, and injudicious mother-in-law. Elizabeth, who suf- 
fered under her terribly, was quite as bad when she became 
the mother-in-law of Stephanie of Belgium ; only we do not 
credit Stephanie with so noble a nature as that of the 
Empress Elizabeth, whose married happiness was destroyed 
by the hostility of Mada?ne Mere, as the Court called the 
Archduchess Sophia, and by breaches of conjugal fidelity on 
the part of her husband. 

I have told something of the interest taken by the Em- 
press Elizabeth in Hungarian affairs in " Italy in the Nine- 
teenth Century." ^ 

Elizabeth had three children. She was not allowed to 
exercise any control over her eldest, the Archduchess Gisela ; 
but over the Archduke Rudolph, she insisted on having her 

1 Pages 286-289. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 487 

maternal rights respected, and the tenderest love grew up 
between the mother and the son. Is there a dearer, a 
more holy tie ? The Archduke Rudolph was everything a 
mother's pride could have desired ; everything that the 
unique empire of Austria- Hungary could have wished for 
in a ruler ; but, alas ! he had the hereditary failing common 
to men of his family, — he could not be kept from immoral 
connections. In this respect he followed the evil example 
of his father. But in all else he would have made a noble 
ruler, — another Henri Quatre, le vert galant. In the end 
retribution fell heavily upon father and son. 

I told in " Italy in the Nineteenth Century " of Rudolph's 
violent and unhappy death. It is now known that he shot 
himself, but the Emperor peremptorily forbade investiga- 
tion, and the story is still a mystery. Had the Crown 
Prince Rudolph followed the advice given by his grand- 
mother, the Duchess Ludovica, to her daughter, when 
Elizabeth, mad with jealousy, fled away to the Ionian Isles, 
it would never have happened. 

"You have acted," wrote Duchess Ludovica to her daughter, 
" as if you, and not your husband, were guilty. I do not deny 
that there is nobility in your refusing to retain the advantages 
of your position at Court, since you fancy that you no longer 
possess Franz's heart ; but many things which the world need 
never have known are now public property. The higher we 
stand on the social ladder, the less right have we to gratify our 
own private vengeances, or to set ourselves free from painful 
obligations. Remember the good old saying : Noblesse oblige. 
You are an integrant part of a great nation's honor; you are 
faithless to your trust and to the traditions of your ancestry, 
when }'ou thus act on the spur of personal injury and passion." 

Had the Archduke Rudolph only acted in the spirit of 
these last words, ''You are an integrant part of a great 
nation's honor ; you must not be faithless to your trust, and 
to the traditions of your ancestry " — the Crown Prince 
would not have shot himself by the side of the young girl 
whom he hopelessly loved. 

When the news of this terrible catastrophe reached 



488 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Vienna, the absorbing thought of the Empress was how she 
might help the Emperor to bear the blow, for long before 
that time they had been reconciled. 

^Vhen he announced the calamity to the Viennese, it was 
in these words : — 

" Tell my people that it is thanks to the courage and de- 
votion of the Empress that I have not given way to absolute 
despair." 

The widow of Prince Rudolph was Princess Stephanie 
of Belgium. It had never been a congenial marriage ; and 
the bride was wholly distasteful to her husband's mother. 
All relations had been broken off between the wife and 
husband, and Rudolph had written earnestly to Pope Leo, 
imploring him to dissolve the marriage. 

The unhappy pair had only one child, the very charming 
little Archduchess Elizabeth. By her father's will she was 
to be brought up entirely by her grandparents, and never, 
till she was of age, be suffered to cross the boundary between 
Austria and Hungary. Her mother, the Princess Stephanie, 
has lately married a Hungarian nobleman. 

The Empress Elizabeth, after the death of her son, never 
took off the deepest mourning. Restless and wretched, 
she wandered about the earth, almost in the character of 
an " unprotected female." She refused to stay in Vienna 
to take part, in 1898, in the celebration of her husband's 
Jubilee. He had to remain, and bear the rejoicings with 
a heavy heart, and it is said that a presentiment hung over 
them both that something dreadful was to happen in that 
Jubilee Year. 

The Empress was completely broken down in health by 
a nervous disorder, for which she went to Paris, but ob- 
tained no relief. She afterwards consulted a doctor at 
San Remo, who insisted on a change of diet ; for the Em- 
press had been starving herself, having no appetite, and 
taking little nourishment but milk. She improved greatly 
under the new treatment ; but she longed for perfect quiet, 
which she found in a villa that she hired in Switzerland. 




COUNT BADEN I. 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY 489 

She wrote earnestly to the Emperor, begging him to join 
her there, and share its peace. But the engagements 
forced on him by his Jubilee Year kept him in Vienna. 

Before the Empress left Switzerland, she insisted on 
going to pass a day or two at Geneva, — Geneva, the very 
hot bed of anarchists and nihilists. Though no one could 
imagine that she ever could have offended the prejudices of 
these people, a gentleman, one of her suite, earnestly re- 
monstrated with her. A few years before, she had been 
insulted, and stones had been thrown at her, by people in a 
little town on the borders of a lake in northern Italy. But 
she was self-willed, and insisted. She loved, indeed, to 
take risks, as when no one could prevent her walking into 
the stall of a wild stallion, called " Black Devil," where no 
groom had ventured to go in for weeks, the animal being 
fed from baskets pushed at him on long poles. Her voice 
and her touch completely subdued " Black Devil," and 
afterwards, when he was presented to her, he would follow 
her about the park like a dog. 

So she went to Geneva. On her way she stopped at the 
villa of the Baroness de Rothschild, on the shore of the 
lake. The Baroness had shown kindness to the Queen of 
Naples when in distress, and her sister wanted personally 
to thank her. While there, she visited the collection of 
marvellous orchids in the conservatories of the Baroness, 
and reached her hotel (the Beaurivage) at Geneva loaded 
with flowers. She had planned to be entirely incognita in 
Geneva, but the landlord of the Beaurivage could not 
refrain from letting his people know that the rooms they 
were preparing were for an Empress. 

The next day all her servants and the gentlemen of her suite 
were sent away by railroad to Territet, leaving her to follow 
later with her lady-in-waiting, the Countess Sztaray, in a 
boat on the lake. She did a little shopping in Geneva, 
then returned to the hotel, and when the time came for the 
boat to start, she issued forth, attended only by her lady- 
in-waiting, a woman apparently not to be depended on in 
an emergency. They were a little late ; the crew of the 



490 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

boat, the •' Geneva," were preparing to remove the gang- 
plank, and Countess Sztaray had her attention distracted by 
making signals to them to wait, when a young man, sitting 
on a bench before the hotel, bounded across the street, 
rushed roughly past the Countess, and threw himself upon 
the Empress. 

Not a cry escaped her as she fell, but almost instantly 
she rose, while the Countess screamed loudly to men upon 
the quay to have the thief stopped, for that was what she 
supposed the man to be. 

To her inquiry, "Are you hurt?" the Empress replied 
calmly, "No, I do not think so — not much at least." 
Then to a passer-by who was trying to brush some dust off 
her dress, she said, with her usual sweetness and courtesy, 
" Ce n^ est pas la peine ; 7nerci bienT 

She crossed the gang plank, but when on board the 
steamer, she fell on the deck fainting. Those around her 
thought she was only suffering from a nervous shock. 
They carried her to the upper deck, and laid her upon 
cushions. The steamer went on. As she grew no better, 
and there was no doctor on board, the Countess became at 
last alarmed. She undid the Empress's dress, and then 
gave a loud scream ; for the breast had been pierced by 
some sharp instrument, and blood was slowly oozing from 
the wound. 

The steamer was put back ; a stretcher was prepared, and 
the dying Empress was carried to the bedroom she had just 
quitted at the hotel. She lived a short hour, and then, with a 
long soft sigh, her soul departed. The only word she said 
was one courteous " J/(?m," to those who had assisted her. 

She was buried in the Church of the Capuchins in 
Vienna, where, nine years before, her beloved Rudolph had 
been laid to rest. She passionately loved flowers, and the 
whole church was filled with them. A wreath from Queen 
Victoria was composed of pale pink chrysanthemums, tube- 
roses, violets, and lilies, with the words, " A token of the 
deepest friendship and veneration from her faithful sister, 
Victoria R. I." 



A US TRIA-HUNGA RY 49 1 

The Emperor of Russia sent a garland of white blossoms 
four yards wide, and beside it lay, what the dead Empress 
would have valued most, a tribute of affection from a peasant 
in the Tyrol, of forest flowers and branches which he had 
brought that morning to Vienna. 

The Emperor seemed heartbroken. All Austria and 
Hungary — nay, all the world — mourned the dead Em- 
press, struck down without a hand raised to shield her. 
The murderer was arrested on the Geneva quay by some 
bystanders. His name is Luccheni. He was born in Paris, 
the son of a laundress, with no acknowledged father, and 
he was abandoned soon after his birth to the care of a 
charitable institution. He had been a soldier, a laborer, a 
student, and at one time was servant in Rome to the Prince 
and Princess of Arazona, to whom he seems to have been 
much attached. He had read much anarchist trash, and 
had become affiliated with an anarchist society, where he 
was accused of being lukewarm. Indignant at this reproach, 
he resolved to do a deed that should print his name for- 
ever on the page of history. His first idea was that he 
would kill the Duke of Orleans ; but the Duke not coming 
within his reach, he resolved to kill the Empress of Austria. 
He gloried in his deed, crying out, when arrested, at the 
top of his voice : " I hit her well, bravo ! Long live anar- 
chy ! All the other sovereigns will follow, and all the 
wealthy folks as well. Long live the Social Revolution ! " 

The law of Switzerland does not allow capital punish- 
ment to be inflicted. Luccheni is now alive, suffering in 
the same manner as an ordinary criminal condemned for 
life, though for the first six months his imprisonment was 
exceptionally severe. 

The Emperor is still a strong vigorous man, with a power 
to work that, at his age, is thought wonderful. He begins 
always at five o'clock, summer and winter, and is steadily 
engaged in what Victor Emmanuel would have called " the 
duties of his profession," until midday, when he takes his 
" second breakfast," having eaten a roll and drunk a cup 
of coffee before five o'clock. 



492 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

He is devoted to his grandchildren, who are, unhappily, 
all girls. Three are the children of his daughter, the Arch- 
duchess Valerie, the fourth is the Archduchess Elizabeth, 
the only child of Rudolph. This little lady, whom the 
Viennese call Unsere kleine Frau, is their pet and their 
admiration. The present law of the Empire, however (not- 
withstanding the reign of Maria Theresa), bars female 
sovereignty. 

As soon as the death of the Crown Prince Rudolph was 
known in Vienna, the heirship to the throne was acknowl- 
edged to have fallen on Archduke Karl Ludwig, younger 
brother of the Emperor ; but a general wish was felt that he 
should renounce the succession. 

Maria Theresa, his Portuguese wife, however, opposed his 
desire to give up his rights, and her husband, contrary to 
his own wishes, held on. He is the most fervent of 
Catholics, the most bitter opponent of all that men call 
progress ; constitutional monarchy he abhors. 

When only two and twenty he was made Viceroy of the 
Tyrol, and ruled it admirably. He married Princess 
Margarethe of Saxony, when she was only sixteen, and he 
was passionately attached to her. The world seemed 
bright around him ; but suddenly, on one September day in 
1858, all changed. His beloved Margarethe died after a 
few hours' illness, and the handsome, happy, fortunate young 
Prince seemed suddenly to have grown an old man. His 
grief was terrible ; for a time fears were entertained for his 
reason. He went to Rome, and passed his days shut up 
in a convent. But the Italian war of 1859 brought him 
forth again. The result of this war was to him a terrible 
blow. He had never doubted that the cause of Austria and 
of the Church would prevail. He bitterly resented all 
schemes for limiting the power of the Emperor, saying that 
people ought to know that a Hapsburg might be trusted 
to do his best for his own subjects. 

Soon after, when the battle for religious toleration was 
raging, Archduke Karl Ludwig stood on one side, and his 
brother's government upon the other. Finally, in the sum- 



A US TRIA-HUNGA RY 493 

mer of 1861, he resigned his Viceroyalty of the Tyrol, and 
withdrew to Gratz, where he hved in retirement, shunning 
all intercourse with his fellow-men. 

But heirs to the thrones of Austria and Hungary were 
scarce. The Emperor had had but one son ; MaximiUan 
had no children ; the Archduke Victor (of whom the world 
knows nothing) was resolved never to marry \ Karl Ludwig 
felt the exigencies of his position, and accepted as his 
wife the Princess Annunciata of Naples. She was a sen- 
sible, kind-hearted woman, and adapted herself with ad- 
mirable tact to her difficult position. She set to work, 
quietly and unobtrusively, to rouse her husband, and in time 
she succeeded ; children were born to brighten their home- 
life, the Archduke's love for science revived, and he began 
to take an interest in the intellectual movements of the 
day. 

He was most bitterly opposed to the liberalism of his 
brothers, Francis Joseph and Maximilian, and believed 
that they were leading their country on the road to 
perdition. 

He never permitted politics to be spoken of in his pres- 
ence, but he put himself at the head of every important 
philanthropic undertaking in the Empire. Innumerable 
are the stories told in Vienna of his kind-heartedness and 
his charity. 

In 187 1, the Archduchess Annunciata died, to the 
sincere regret of the husband to whom her life had 
been devoted. Two years later, to the great astonishment 
of his own family, Karl Ludwig announced that he was 
about to take another bride. This time the lady was Maria 
Theresa, daughter of Don Miguel of Portugal. She was 
beautiful, very clever, and had charming manners. Into the 
Austrian court and the social circles of Vienna, she came 
as a flash of brightness.^ 

Her decided opposition to her husband's renunciation 
of his rights as heir to the thrones of Austria- Hungary 
yielded at last, and the son of Karl Ludwig, the Archduke 
1 Compiled from an article in " Temple Bar." 



494 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Ferdinand, became the acknowledged heir of his uncle, the 
Emperor. But very recently this young Prince has taken 
the world by surprise, and distressed his family, by openly 
and avowedly marrying the Countess Chotek, a Hungarian 
lady, and renouncing for the heirs of this marriage all claim 
to the dual throne. 

Almost as I write comes news of a great commotion 
in the Hungarian Parliament when, on Oct. 31, 1900, 
Francis Kossuth, son of the great leader, made a mo- 
tion insisting on the right of Countess Chotek to become 
Queen of Hungary. The Hungarian Premier expressed 
the greatest respect for the wife of the Archduke Ferdinand, 
but explained that it was entirely impossible for Hungary, 
by herself, to alter the law of succession. 

Meantime, disturbances in the Reichsrath, principally on 
the question of languages (there are said to be no less than 
eleven languages or dialects in the Empire), have 
become so outrageous and discreditable that the Emperor 
has threatened to break up the Parliamentary system, and 
to establish a new constitution by decree. 

By the time these pages are in the hands of my readers, 
we shall have learned the effect of this threat. May I be 
suffered to employ the language of the nursery, and to trust 
it may induce the Parliament " to behave better " ? 



SPAIN 

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 



SPAIN 

THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

A /TY " Spain in the Nineteenth Century " brought the 
^^^ history of that country up to the close of 1897. The 
volume ended with a postscript saying that Senor Canovas, 
the great Spanish statesman, and the fast friend of the 
dynasty he had so largely helped to place upon the throne, 
had been assassinated, and the last words of my book were 
quoted from the " Outlook " : — 

" After the assassination of Canovas there was a general hope 
among Spanish liberals that Sagasta might be called to the 
premiership. It is well known that he has earnestly advocated 
a policy of conciliation with Cuba, and of home rule for the 
Cubans. The chief difficulty in making such a policy practi- 
cable is that the Cuban insurgents show not the slightest dis- 
position to accept anything but complete and absolute inde- 
pendence. . • . Any form of local autonomy which can be 
suggested would, they say, be easily perverted by Spain in 
actual practice, and of Spanish promises Cuba in the past has 
had too much experience to trust them again." 

Nevertheless, near the close of 1897, General Weyler 
being recalled. General Blanco was sent to Cuba with a 
scheme of autonomy. The Cuban insurgents refused 
even to listen to it. They threatened that any man who 
came to them with any such proposition should be shot, 
and this savage decree they carried into effect when 
Colonel Ruiz, a Spanish officer, approached one of their 
camps for the purpose of explaining to them what the 
Spanish Government proposed and intended. 

The Spanish autonomy scheme, indeed, had it been 
accepted in Cuba, would seem to have had little 

32 



498 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

chance of calming the dissensions and disorders in the 
country. Among the inhabitants of Havana who were 
still loyal to the Spanish Government there were two 
parties, — the autonomists and the old Spanish party, or, as 
they called themselves, " Conservatives." These refused to 
take any part in organizing a scheme of autonomy. 

The autonomy proposed placed, indeed, great power in 
the hands of the Governor-General and contained no provi- 
sions against its being suddenly set aside by the will of 
the Spanish Cabinet and Cortes. 

Riots in opposition to the scheme broke out in Havana 
in January, 1898, with cries of "Down with autonomy! " 
" Hurrah for Weyler ! " Americans were not threatened 
or molested, but the United States Consul-General, Colonel 
Fitzhugh Lee, thought it best to request his government to 
send a warship to Havana from Key West. This action 
was agreed to by the Spanish Government, which, accepting 
the arrival of the warship as an act of civility, proposed to 
send a Spanish warship to an American port to return the 
visit. The " Vizcaya" was therefore ordered to New York, 
where her officers were received with hospitality. 

The " Maine " went to Havana, and anchored in the har- 
bor in a place pointed out to her by government officials. 
About the same time an unpleasant incident occurred 
in Washington. Senor de Lome, the Spanish Ambassador, 
who up to that time had filled a difficult position with 
ability and discretion, wrote a private letter to a friend in 
Cuba, in which he spoke of President McKinley as a man 
of vacillating disposition, and much controlled by politi- 
cians. This letter somehow fell into the hands of Cuban 
insurgents, who forwarded it to the State Department at 
Washington. The United States at once requested Senor 
de Lome's recall, but this was anticipated by his resigna- 
tion. Meantime affairs in Cuba seemed to be going from 
bad to worse. The army, irritated by slurs cast on it by 
autonomists, was becoming disaffected; the island was 
bankrupt, its people starving, its commerce crippled. 

On February 15, just after De Lome's departure, oc- 



]1 




ADMIRAL DEWEY. 



ij 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 499 

curred the appalling disaster of the blowing up of the 
" Maine." 

I may here say, worthless though my opinion may be, 
that I have never thought the Spanish or Cuban Govern- 
ment had anything to do with that outrage. I believe that 
the explosion was caused from without by an infernal 
machine, but I cannot believe it was placed there with the 
knowledge or connivance of the Spanish Government. 
What had that Government to gain by precipitating a war 
with the United States ? The Spanish Cabinet and General 
Blanco were doing all in their power to prevent that war. 
The party who wanted the United States to be embroiled 
with Spain was the insurgent party in Cuba. With the 
two countries at war, Cubans might hope to achieve their 
independence. The insurgents had no scruple about using 
infernal machines. To my personal knowledge, one of 
their agents sailed from New York to the West Indies 
about that time with several of them in his possession, — 
not powerful enough to blow up a warship ; but unless 
Cuban insurgents were less clever than anarchists in France, 
why might they not have abstracted a powerful explosive 
from the government stores? At any rate, if they designed 
to provoke a war, the explosion on Feb. 15, 1898, effected 
their purpose. , 

Shortly before ten o'clock, on the night of February 15, 
as the " Maine " lay at her anchorage near Fort Attares in 
Havana Harbor, her crew being for the most part in bed, 
the usual inspection of the magazines having taken place, 
and the keys having been left in the possession of Captain 
Sigsbee, who was writing letters in his cabin, an explosion 
took place in the forward part of the ship, so terrific that it 
was heard miles away. The whole city was shaken ; lights 
were extinguished in the streets ; and the bay was illumi- 
nated far and wide by the light of the burning vessel. 
Captain Sigsbee said in his report, " I find it impossible to 
describe the sound or shock, but the impression remains 
of something awe-inspiring, terrifying, — of noise rending, 
vibrating, all-pervading. There is nothing in the former 



500 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

experience of any one on board to measure the explosion 
by." 

The quarters of the crew, of course, were forward, and 
the destruction of Ufe among them was most frightful. Of 
the 354 officers and men on board, only 104 escaped 
death, and of these many were severely wounded. Two 
officers were among the lost. Lieutenant Jenkins and 
Engineer Merritt. The great ship soon sank, bow first, and 
many of the crew were drowned in their hammocks. The 
officers contrived to launch three boats. A Spanish war- 
ship, anchored near, at once sent her boats to offer assist- 
ance, and passenger ships and steamers in the harbor did 
the same. 

The chaplain of the " Maine," Rev. Mr. Chadwick (a 
Roman Catholic), worked day after day as the dead were 
brought ashore, identifying their bodies, performing brief 
funeral rites, and giving attention in the intervals to the 
wounded in the hospital. 

The Spanish authorities in Cuba did all they could to 
express regret and sympathy, and all Havana joined in 
funeral services over the American sailors, — a service more 
imposing, it was said, than Havana had ever seen. 

It was agreed that American divers , should first go down 
to make a report as to what had caused the wreck and to 
save as much portable private property as possible. The 
Spaniards afterwards performed the same duty. 

To the present day it is not precisely known what caused 
the terrible explosion. A boat was seen to put off from the 
shore about nightfiill, and a woman was said to have made 
some vague disclosures. Some thought that when the 
United States had possession of Havana, our detectives 
would follow up these clues, but nothing seems to have 
been done in that direction. 

Yet, though the good sense and good feeling of the 
country endeavored to suppress sensational reports in 
the newspapers, " Remember the ' Maine ' " soon became 
the United States battle-cry. 

Meantime Spain was sinking deeper and deeper into 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 501 

debt, and that with the prospect of war. She had not 
money to pay arrears due her army and her pubhc servants. 
She had to pay annually $65,000,000 interest on her debt, 
and her Cuban indebtedness was not far from $500,000,000. 
She had no means to alleviate the starvation and suffering 
in Cuba. Sympathizers in the United States confided 
money to Miss Clara Barton, who on her arrival in Cuba 
reported that the conditions were far worse than she had 
expected. Most of the planters and business men were quite 
ruined. Years of peace, she was told, would be needed 
to restore industry and commerce to their former state. 
Both Spaniards and insurgents were represented as treating 
non-combatants of doubtful devotion to their respective 
causes with the utmost brutality, and destroying property 
uselessly and recklessly. In short, the entire condition of 
the island seemed desperate. But regarding the despatch 
of supplies to Cuba in American naval vessels, the Spanish 
Government ventured a remonstrance. It also, in a spirit 
of reciprocity for the dismissal, I suppose, of De Lome, 
made an effort to have General Fitzhugh Lee removed 
from the Consul-Generalship. To this a very dignified 
reply was made by the United States Government. 

" The President will not consider the recall of General Lee. 
He has borne himself throughout this crisis with judgment, 
fidelity, and courage, to the President's entire satisfaction. As 
to the supphes for the relief of the Cuban people, all arrange- 
ments have been made to carry a consignment this week from 
Key West by one of the naval vessels, whichever may be best 
adapted and most available for the purpose, to Matanzas and 
Sagua." 

Nothing further came of the incident ; the request of 
the Spanish Government was withdrawn. Meantime both 
Washington and Madrid were, as the London " Spectator " 
said, " expecting war without desiring it." But it seemed 
time to be prepared when a war-cloud loomed in the hori- 
zon, and Congress voted Mr. McKinley $50,000,000 to be 
spent on coast defence. Those were the days in which no 



502 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

one doubted " the good judgment, patriotism, and firmness 
of the President." 

As soon as Congress had voted $50,000,000 to be placed 
in the hands of the President, to be used at his discretion 
for national defence, the United States was in an excitement 
of preparation for war. 

Military departments were reorganized, war material was 
purchased, ships were fitted out, men were enlisted, tugs, 
passenger steamers, and private yachts were put into com- 
mission, and two new battleships were purchased abroad. 
Those who desired peace quieted their consciences by 
asserting that the best way to insure peace was to be pre- 
pared for war. 

Meantime negotiations continued at Madrid, conducted 
by Minister Woodford and the Cabinet of the Queen 
Regent. One proposition made, but never diplomatically 
or seriously considered, was that the United States should 
guarantee Cuban bonds to such an extent that Cuba should 
be able to carry out a real scheme of autonomy, Spain 
abandoning all claim to interfere in the government of the 
island, and retaining only a nominal suzerainty. 

President McKinley was credited, not only by his country- 
men, but by governments and nations throughout the world, 
with the most praiseworthy desire to hold back the rash and 
turbulent among his people, while carrying on negotiations 
in a spirit of diplomacy. England especially showed sym- 
pathy and friendship for the United States in this crisis, 
this feeling being greatly strengthened by what her peo- 
ple considered the firmness and good judgment of Mr. 
McKinley. 

Meantime the condition of things in Cuba grew worse 
and worse. General Blanco repealed the order by which 
General Weyler had prohibited tillage in certain provinces 
of the island and driven the agricultural population into 
towns ; but as the crops, stocks, and farm implements of 
these poor creatures had been destroyed, liberty to return 
to their homes was of little use to them. 

Senator Proctor was sent semi-officially to Cuba to bring 



n 




GENERAL MILES. 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 503 

back a report that the Government might depend on, of the 
condition of things there. " Outside of Havana," he said, 
" it is not peace, nor is it war ; it is desolation and distress, 
misery and starvation." Of General Blanco's good faith 
and good intentions Mr. Proctor spoke highly, but his pre- 
sentation of the filets seemed a curious commentary on an 
assertion at the same time made by General Blanco at a 
banquet, that " the Spanish flag represented liberty and 
civilization ! " 

Stimulated by the efforts of Miss Clara Barton and the 
charitable in the United States, to provide relief for the 
reconcentrados, the Spanish ministry placed $600,000 at 
the disposal of General Blanco to aid in relieving suffering. 
But all this came too late. Both countries were busy with 
their warlike preparations, and the Senate Committee on 
Foreign Relations, soon after the report of Senator Proctor, 
prepared a resolution recognizing the independence of 
Cuba, and recommending armed intervention, if neces- 
sary, to secure it. 

On Monday, April 11, the President sent a message to 
Congress asking it to empower him to take measures to 
secure a full and final termination of the hostilities between 
the Government of Spain and the people of Cuba. The 
President speaks of the war as " one of extermination ; 
the only peace it can beget," he says, " is that of the wil- 
derness and the grave." 

Influenced by the Pope, Spain appeared willing to make 
some concessions, but she would not declare Cuba inde- 
pendent, and less than that, or complete subjugation of the 
island, would not end the war. 

After a few days of debate and conference a resolution 
was passed by both Houses of Congress (in the House of 
Representatives by a vote 322 to 19) embodying the views 
set forth in the President's message, and disclaiming any 
intention " of exercising sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control 
over the island of Cuba, except for its pacification, and 
when that should be accomplished to leave the government 
and control of the island to its people." 



504 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

The resolution in the Senate, in spite of the reports of 
the Committee of Investigation, and the testimony of Mr. 
Proctor, threw responsibiUty for the loss of the " Maine " 
on the Spanish Government. Its resolution, as passed, was 
said to be " more like a prosecuting attorney's speech than 
an official document." 

The Spanish Government drew up a note to the effect 
that President McKinley's message was incompatible with 
the sovereignty and rights of the Spanish nation, " as those 
rights did not admit of interference in Spain's affairs by any 
other nation." 

And then the war broke out. There was no formal 
declaration of war at first. As soon as the Spanish Lega- 
tion in Washington was notified of the resolutions passed 
by Congress, the minister and his attaches set out for 
Canada. Before General Woodford had had time to receive 
an answer to a demand, drawn up in accordance with these 
resolutions and sent to the Queen Regent, he was requested, 
without further answer, to leave the country. 

Spain hoped much from her navy. She had gathered a 
formidable fleet at Cadiz, and another more numerous, but 
less powerful, at the Cape de Verde, but we know now that 
the commanders of these fleets represented them to their 
government as being in a very unserviceable condition, and 
that the engineers and firemen, being almost all of Scottish 
birth, had refused to serve against Americans. 

Congress passed a resolution declaring that a state of war 
had existed since April 21, 1898. The fleet of the United 
States, waiting orders at Key West, was ordered to blockade 
the ports of Cuba. Several prizes were captured, but in 
the end were released, as the captures were considered 
premature. 

The United States, though she had refused to give formal 
adhesion to the Declaration of Paris concerning Naval 
Warfare, gave notice that she would adhere to its four 
cardinal points. First, Privateering should be abolished ; 
secondly, Neutral flags should protect an enemy's goods, if 
not contraband of war; thirdly. Neutral goods under an 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 505 

enemy's flag were not to be seized ; fourthly, A blockade, to 
be binding, must be effective. 

Spain also adhered to these rules, except the first. She 
would not bind herself never to issue letters of marque to 
privateers. 

Havana was blockaded, and its forts fired on United 
States vessels. Admiral Sampson was in command of the 
blockading fleet ; Commodore Schley (his former superior 
in naval rank) commanded the fleet at Hampton Roads, 
which was to defend the long coast line, and be prepared 
to protect American transatlantic vessels. 

Commodore Dewey with his fleet at Hong Kong (which, 
being a British port, he was obliged to leave, as England 
was a neutral power) received orders by cable to capture 
or destroy, if possible, the Spanish fleet in the East Indies. 

There had been some talk of Carlist disturbances in 
Spain ; but when war was declared, all parties seemed for a 
moment animated by patriotic enthusiasm. The Queen 
Regent in person addressed the Cortes. She declared the 
unalterable resolution of the Government to defend Spanish 
rights, whatever sacrifices might be imposed upon the 
country, and then added, — 

"Thus identifying myself with the nation, I not only fulfil the 

oath I swore in accepting the Regency, but I follow the dictates 

'of a mother's heart, trusting to the Spanish people to gather 

behind my son's throne, and to defend it until he is old enough 

to defend it himself." 

In the United States Congress a War Tax Bill was passed, 
and 125,000 volunteers were called out to serve for two 
years, in addition to the regular army. 

The first victory of the war was that of Commodore 
Dewey, who destroyed the entire Spanish fleet in East 
Indian waters, without the loss of a ship, and almost with- 
out the loss of a single man. Commodore Dewey's de- 
spatches were brief; the cable had been cut, and his only 
means of telegraphing was to send a message by a swift 
boat to Hong Kong. Before he could do this, the Span- 



506 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

iards, when about to cut the cable, sent a message to Madrid 
that the American fleet had been totally annihilated. 

Dewey's fleet left Hong Kong on April 27, and reached 
Subic Bay in the Philippines, where they expected to find 
the enemy. As the enemy's fleet was not in Subic Bay, 
the Commodore sailed boldly to Manila. He steamed 
in the dark up Manila Bay, all lights put out except that a 
blaze came occasionally from the smokestack of one of 
his small steamers ; and he passed the batteries at Cor- 
regidor Island, which command the entrance to the bay, 
without attracting the notice of the enemy. 

Two sunken torpedoes were exploded in advance of the 
" Olympia," the Commodore's flagship, which was leading 
the attack, and then the Spanish Admiral Montojo took 
the alarm. He was at great disadvantage. His steam- 
ships had not enough steam to manoeuvre them properly, 
and three of them had broken machinery. They were 
drawn up in line of battle before Cavit^, but Commodore 
Dewey so manoeuvred his fleet as to keep an advantageous 
position in spite of strong currents in the bay, and to avoid 
giving the Spaniards a steady mark. 

The commander led his little fleet five times back and 
forth before the Spanish firing line, until at last, fearing 
that the ammunition on board some of his smaller ves- 
sels was exhausted, he drew out of range, and the men 
breakfasted. 

When he closed in again, the Spaniards fought gallantly, 
and the flagship, the " Maria Cristina," advanced oi:t of the 
line to attack the Americans, but in a few minutes she was 
helpless and a cripple. 

The Spanish Admiral's last signal was for the captains of 
all vessels to scuttle their ships and abandon them. At 
first, when Dewey's ship returned into the fight, he did not 
know how completely the Spanish fleet had been destroyed, 
— how admirably, by his bravery and his seamanship, he 
had succeeded. A shell struck the magazine in the battery 
of Cavity, and the ammunition stored in it exploded, kill- 
ing forty Spanish soldiers. Then the commandant raised a 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 507 

white flag. Admiral Montojo had been wounded and 
carried into Manila. The Spanish forts surrendered, and 
the Americans had complete command of the bay. 

It was a brilliant victory due to good seamanship and 
good gunnery. Dewey's first care after the action was to 
provide relief for the Spanish wounded. Except eight men 
struck by an explosion on board the " Baltimore " he had no 
killed or wounded of his own. 

He also despatched at once a message to the authorities 
in Manila, that one shot fired from the shore would be the 
signal for a bombardment which would lay the city in ashes. 

I think Commodore Dewey's own brief cable despatches 
speak more eloquently than more elaborate accounts of the 
action, though these were not wanting, for the correspond- 
ent of the New York " Herald " stood on the bridge of the 
"Olympia" beside the Commodore while the fight went on. 

Manila, May i. Squadron arrived at Manila at daybreak 
this morning. Immediately engaged the enemy, and destroyed 
the following Spanish vessels [here follow ten names]. The 
squadron is uninjured, and only a few men are slightly 
wounded. Only means of telegraphing is to American Con- 
sul at Hong Kong. I shall communicate with him. 

Dewey. 

Cavit^, May 4. I have taken possession of naval station at 
Cavitd on Philippine Islands Have destroyed the fortifica- 
tions at bay entrance, paroling the garrison. I control bay 
completely, and can take city at any time. The squadron is 
in excellent health and spirits. Spanish loss not fully known, 
but very heavy. One hundred and fifty killed, including Cap- 
tain of "Reina Cristina." I am assisting in protecting Spanish 
sick and wounded ; two hundred and fifty sick and wounded 
in hospital within our lines. Much excitement at Manila. 
Will protect foreign residents. Dewey. 

The commanders of all naval vessels on the eastern 
coast of Asia hurried at once to Manila — German, English, 
and the rest — to look after the interests of their country- 
men. At first the German Admiral Dietrichs was disposed 
to make difficulties, but Commodore Dewey was firm, and 
was supported in all things by the English commander. 



508 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

Congress on receipt of the news of this victory instantly 
and unanimously passed a joint resolution thanking Com- 
modore Dewey, his officers, and his men in the name of 
the American people, and a bill was passed increasing by 
one the number of admirals, so that Commodore Dewey 
might be immediately promoted. 

Meantime there was great uncertainty felt in the United 
States concerning the Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera 
at Cadiz, Would it harry the coasts of New York, Rhode 
Island, and Massachusetts? Would it try to intercept the 
crack battleship of the American navy, the " Oregon," on 
her voyage from Rio Janeiro ? 

The insurgents in Cuba, inspirited by the declaration of 
war between Spain and the United States, marched under 
Generals Gomez and Garcia toward the province of 
Havana. They looked to the American Government, as 
their ally, for ammunition and supplies. These were sent, 
but did not always reach them. 

The general expectation was that the force intended for 
the invasion of Cuba, and assembled during the first week 
of May at Tampa, Florida, under General Shafter, would 
land somewhere near Havana, according to a plan once 
laid down by General Grant, and attack that city. But 
General Miles, Commander-in-Chief of the American forces, 
formed another plan. This was to take the troops assembled 
at Tampa ostensibly for the invasion of Cuba, to Puerto 
Rico, seize that island, make it a base of operations, and 
invade Cuba from the south ; then after the rainy season 
should be over, the Americans, cutting the Spanish forces 
in two, could sweep across the island and attack Havana. 
This plan was, however, frustrated before it could be put 
in operation, by the movements. of the Spanish fleet under 
Admiral Cervera. 

Cervera had sailed from Cadiz, on April 8, for the Cape 
Verd Islands. When war broke out, neither spies, cables, 
rumors, nor passing steamers gave the Americans any idea 
as to where the Spanish squadron was, or what it was 
about, although fast cruisers were sent toward the Spanish 





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ADMIRAL CERVERA. 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 509 

coast to gather information. But on May 11, the enemy's 
ships were found to be at Martinique, replenishing their 
coal bunkers. The United States considered this on the 
part of France a breach of neutrality ; but French sympa- 
thies and French interests were both on the side of Spain, 
the Spanish finances being entirely at the mercy of French 
creditors. From Martinique the fleet went to the Vene- 
zuelan coast, and then, undiscovered by Sampson's cruisers 
on the watch, it managed to slip into the harbor of Santi- 
ago, which is, after Havana, the most important town and 
seaport on the island. The entrance to this harbor is very 
narrow and was protected by Fort Morro,^ which was sup- 
posed to be a place of great strength ; later it was discov- 
ered to have been almost denuded of cannon. 

When Admiral Cervera was known to be in Santiago 
Harbor, Admiral Sampson, reinforced by Commodore 
Schley's flying squadron, which was no longer needed to 
defend the Atlantic coast, concentrated his fleet to block- 
ade the south coast of Cuba, and to prevent Admiral Cer- 
vera's fleet from putting to sea again. Admiral Sampson 
had, on the morning of May 1 2, made an attack on 
San Juan, the northernmost port of Puerto Rico. His shells 
repeatedly hit the fortifications, but the only serious damage 
they did was when one of them exploded in an immense 
store of coal, laid up for the use of Spanish naval steamers. 

After this attack, or demonstration, against San Juan, 
Admiral Sampson, reinforced by Schley's squadron, pro- 
ceeded, as I have said, to bottle up Admiral Cervera's fleet 
in Santiago. To do this effectually it was necessary to 
close the narrow passage, which would have to be done 
under fire, and the Morro was considered more formidable 
than it proved to be. The duty was undertaken by Lieu- 
tenant Hobson, a young naval engineer officer. He volun- 
teered to take a coal steamer, the " Merrimac," into the 
mouth of the harbor, lay her across the channel, and sink 
her there, he and the seven men who volunteered with him 

^ Morro is a name often given to Spanish forts. There is another 
guarding the harbor of Havana. 



5IO LAST YEARS OF THE NJA^ETEENTH CENTURY 

escaping as she went down by means of a small flat- bot- 
tomed boat, a sort of raft, called a catamaran. Lieutenant 
Powell on a steam launch was to look out for them. 

When Hobson touched the button that was to explode 
the torpedoes and make holes in the hull, causing the vessel 
to sink, only three exploded. He and his crew were on the 
" Merrimac's " deck. The catamaran was expected to float 
as the ship sank, but until then it had been attached to the 
boom of the slowly sinking vessel. A brisk cross-fire from 
either shore was aimed at them. Lieutenant Hobson or- 
dered his men to he on their faces on the deck until that 
deck reached the water's edge. Here is his own account 
of his undertaking. 

" ' Not a man must move,' I said, and it was owing to the 
splendid discipline of the men that we were not killed, as the 
shells rained over us and minutes became hours of suspense. 
The men's mouths grew parched ; but we must lie there till 
daylight, I told them. Now and again one or other of the men, 
lying with his face glued to the deck, and wondering whether 
the next shell would not come our way, would say, ' Had n't 
we better drop off now, sir ? ' But I said, ' Wait till daylight.' 
It would have been impossible to get the catamaran anywhere 
but on to the shore, where the soldiers stood shooting, and I 
hoped that by dayhght we might be recognized and saved. The 
grand old 'Merrimac' kept sinking. I wanted to go forward 
and see the damage done there, where nearly all the fire was 
directed. One man said that if I rose it would draw all the 
fire on the rest. So I lay motionless. It was splendid the 
way those men behaved. The fire of the soldiers, the batteries, 
and the ' Vizcaya ' was awful. When the water came up to the 
' Merrimac's' decks the catamaran floated amid the wreckage, but 
it was still made fast to the boom, and we caught hold of the 
edges and clung on, our heads only being above water. A 
Spanish launch came toward the 'Merrimac' We agreed to 
capture her and run. Just as she came close the Spaniards saw 
us, and half a dozen marines jumped up, and pointed their rifles 
at our heads, sticking out of the water. 'Is there any ofiicer in 
that boat to receive a surrender of prisoners of war ? ' I shouted. 
An old man leaned out under the awning, and waved his hand. 
It was Admiral Cervera. The marines lowered their rifles, and 
we were helped into the launch." 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 5 II 

Admiral Cervera took care that his prisoners were kindly 
treated ; and they were subsequently exchanged, to the great 
delight of the army then investing Santiago, especially of 
Roosevelt's Rough Riders, who, wildly cheering, broke their 
ranks to grasp them by the hand. For before this time 
General Shafter's army at Tampa, fifteen thousand men, had 
been embarked and under convoy had sailed for Santiago. 
They landed at three places. The first was near the 
Bay of Guantanamo, forty miles east of Santiago. The 
Spanish infantry were stretched in a line fifty-three miles 
in length from this place to Cabanas, ready to concentrate 
at any spot where a landing might be attempted. There 
was considerably more delay, however, than had been ex- 
pected, and the men were not all landed till June 22 at 
Baiquiri. General Garcia with his Cubans kept the 
Spaniards from attacking the invading force while it was 
landing. 

The main camp was formed at Siboney, a place im- 
pregnated with yellow fever. General Shafter was very 
anxious to advance at once upon the city, fearing that 
severe storms might drive off shore the ships from which 
he expected to receive supplies. 

When the advance began, General Wheeler, with a party 
of cavalry, some of them Rough Riders, others colored 
troopers, pushed forward and found himself at a place 
where two roads met, both leading to Santiago. He at- 
tacked the enemy, who guarded the place and were in a 
strong position. Here the Americans first encountered the 
fire of rifles with smokeless powder, but they pushed on, 
and completely routed the enemy. The story of this first 
fight is very exciting, and was graphically related by cor- 
respondents. I cannot but regret that I have not space 
here to dwell upon it more at length. 

The Spanish generals in command at Santiago — Gen- 
eral Linares and General Toral — were hourly expecting 
reinforcements from Havana, which General Blanco was 
to send them under command of General Pando. General 
Shafter deputed General Garcia with his Cubans to inter- 



512 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

cept this reinforcement ; but already coolness had sprung 
up between the insurgent army and the Americans ; the one 
nation was overbearing and scornful, the other was thievish, 
and, some thought, cowardly. 

The army pushed on until it was within three miles of 
Santiago. But while American soldiers were meeting, dur- 
ing the first days of July, with serious opposition, and 
though uniformly successful, were losing many gallant 
officers and brave men, the navy was achieving a victory 
at Santiago, even more signal and more important than 
that gained on the Pacific coast by Admiral Dewey two 
months before. 

At nine o'clock on Sunday morning, July 3, the Spanish 
fleet ventured out of Santiago Harbor. It is said that 
Cervera foresaw the inevitable surrender of Santiago, that 
he was short of food, short of ammunition, and short of all 
other supplies. The wreck of the " Merrimac " had not 
entirely blocked the channel. Admiral Sampson, most un- 
fortunately for himself, had gone a little way down the 
coast in his flagship. Commodore Schley, in the " Brook- 
lyn," was in command. The plan of operations had been 
made by Sampson, though he was not there to superintend 
them when the time came. 

It was broad daylight on a summer morning when four 
armored Spanish cruisers — the "Almirante Oquendo," the 
" Cristoval Colon," the " Vizcaya," and the " Infanta Maria 
Teresa" — were seen steaming in line toward the mouth of 
Santiago Harbor. With them were two torpedo boat-de- 
stroyers, — the "Furor" and the " Pluton." 

They passed out of the dangerously narrow passage ; the 
cruisers steered rapidly westward ; the torpedo boats made 
straight for Commodore Schley's flagship, the ''Brooklyn." 

The American fleet lost no time in following the Spanish 
ships, pouring a quick fire into them. Very shortly the 
"Maria Teresa" gave up the race, and was run ashore 
about eight miles west from Santiago. Almost immediately 
after this the " Almirante Oquendo" was beached, and soon 
both vessels were in flames. The same fate befell the 



i 




ADMIRAL SAMPSON. 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 513 

"Vizcaya;" the flagship, the " Cristoval Colon," alone 
remained. 

The American sailors were made indignant by seeing 
insurgent Cubans come down to the shore and fire at 
Spaniards who had escaped drowning ; and threats were 
made that if they continued such inhuman work the Amer- 
ican guns would open upon them. 

The "Cristoval Colon," with Admiral Cervera on board, 
led her adversaries a long chase. She was a very fast ship, 
and trusted to escape by speed, but American shots were 
too well directed ; she was disabled, and, striking her flag, 
shared the fate of her companions. 

Admiral Cervera, his son, and his staff were taken on 
board the " Gloucester," where Captain Wainwright received 
them with expressions of admiration for their splendid gal- 
lantry. They might have returned the compliment, for the 
little "Gloucester," formerly the pleasure yacht of Mr. 
Pierpoint Morgan, had left the line of the American fleet 
and run up close to the torpedo boats " Furor " and 
" Pluton," firing on them as she advanced. They turned 
and fled, and soon lay wrecked upon the beach like all the 
others. 

" It was a famous victory," as the old man said to his 
grandchild in Southey's poem, but, like him, we must 
lament for those who lost, while we rejoice with those who 
won. 

" Brave, true-hearted, tender Philip ! 

Standing with uncovered head, — 
' Don't cheer, boys ! For those poor fellows, 
There, are dying ! ' quick he said." ^ 

While the navy was thus employed destroying the whole 
Spanish fleet, and capturing eighteen hundred prisoners, with 
the loss of only one man, the army was engaged in a series 
of bloody and bitterly contested conflicts. A telegraph and 
telephone station had been established within a short dis- 
tance of Santiago. The hill village of El Caney on the 

1 Miss Mary F. Nixon. 



514 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

northeast of Santiago, and the hill of San Juan on the south- 
west, had been strongly fortified by the Spaniards. The 
Rough Riders (on foot), under Lieutenant-Colonel Roose- 
velt, with the First and Tenth regiments of dismounted 
cavalry, mounted the hill toward a block-house on San Juan 
in blistering heat and under a terrific fire from concealed 
sharp-shooters. The correspondent of the New York 
"World" thus tells the story: — 

" From the block-house battery shrapnel poured upon the 
storming party, but only once did the men waver. Roosevelt 
saw it, and, riding far out in advance, yelled for his men to fol- 
low him. They did, and the Tenth and First were right along- 
side. They went up the hill on the double quick, yelling and 
shouting. Bullets and shrapnel rained upon them, stretching 
many a poor fellow dead, with the cheering yell of his comrades 
ringing in his ears. Every gap was closed up, — and there were 
many of them. The men had not gone thirty yards in the open 
when Roosevelt's horse went down. The Colonel landed on his 
feet, and ran along to keep in the van." 

EI Caney was captured after five hours of hard fighting, 
the whole American force, about fifteen thousand men, being 
engaged ; and the Spanish force retreated back to Santiago. 

It was in consequence of American success in these two 
fights that the Spanish fleet attempted to escape out of the 
harbor. To remain would have been destruction ; to put 
to sea gave them at least some chance, and it was felt to 
be far better to wreck the vessels than to leave them to 
become the enemy's prize. Besides, it is said that Cervera 
had positive orders to put to sea in such an emergency. 

A week later General Shaffer summoned Santiago to 
surrender, under a threat of bombardment if surrender 
were refused. But General Toral, then in command of the 
city, requested a postponement that he might ask instruc- 
tions from the authorities at Madrid, and requested at the 
same time permission to use the cable lines, which were in 
the Americans' hands. 

General Linares, who had been the Spanish commander 
up to that time, threw the pain and shame and penalty 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 515 

of the surrender upon General Toral, and resigned his 
command. General Linares is now in Madrid, a man of 
political consequence, while Toral had to stand a court- 
martial and to be hunted and hooted by the rabble on his 
arrival in Spain. 

The situation in Santiago was becoming desperate. 
Crowds of non-combatants sought refuge at El Caney, 
where it was estimated that the Americans fed fifteen 
thousand, though the state of the roads and other diiificulties 
of transportation made it very hard for the United States 
Commissariat to bring up supplies. 

Before the time fixed for surrender (or the bombard- 
ment) General Toral sent General Shafter a formal offer 
to evacuate the city, provided bis forces might retire sixty 
miles to the northwest, in the direction of Havana. This 
the American general at once refused. Some further nego- 
tiations took place ; but as the Government in Washington 
was unwilling to accept any terms but unconditional sur- 
render, the armistice expired without result, and on Sunday, 
July 10, at a very early hour the Spaniards reopened fire. 
The Americans were ready to recommence hostilities. 
Ships of war came up into the harbor, and began to shell 
the town. General Miles too arrived with his staff and 
reinforcements. As Commander-in-chief he was entitled 
to take the command, and to receive the impending sur- 
render of the city, but, to his glory be it spoken, he refused 
to interfere, or to supersede General Shafter, leaving him 
all the glory and credit of the successful campaign. If 
politicians had not interfered, the unhappy discussion as to 
which had won most credit in the naval fight, Sampson or 
Schley, need never have marred the glory of their victory. 
I know naval men well enough to be certain that, left to 
themselves, the two admirals would have quietly and ami- 
cably settled what was due to each other, without calling 
in the public to take sides in a matter relating to their 
profession. 

On July 16 Santiago surrendered. It was less than four 
weeks since the first American soldier had set foot on Cuban 



5l6' LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

soil. Not only the city, but the whole province of Santiago 
surrendered. 

American infantry and cavalry in the Plaza uncovered 
and presented arms as the Stars and Stripes were raised 
over the city, and the bands gave forth at once the Ameri- 
can national airs. 

The surrender of arms and ammunition, the clearing of 
obstructions in the streets and in the harbor, went on rap- 
idly, and the Red Cross steamer " Texas " came at once up 
the harbor. In Mr. Keenan's letters — first published in 
the " Outlook," and I presume to be republished in book 
form — my readers may find most interesting accounts of 
what he saw that day in Santiago, and subsequently as he 
went about the country in the interest of the Red Cross, 
from town to town. 

In the city there was a perfect entanglement of defences, 
largely of barbed wire, then first used in war. " Fighting as 
the Spaniards did the first day," said a correspondent, " it 
would have cost five thousand lives to take the city." Gen- 
eral Shafter himself said, " The Spaniards had no alterna- 
tive but to surrender. We had them hemmed in, and sur- 
rounded by a greatly superior force, equipped with ten 
batteries of artillery. If they had not submitted, they 
would have been annihilated." 

General Toral's feelings were somewhat soothed by the 
substitution of the word " capitulation " for the word " sur- 
render." I believe, too, his own Hfe depended on it, for by 
Spanish military law a commander may capitulate, but to 
surrender is a capital crime. The prisoners were to be 
paroled and sent home to Spain at the expense of the 
Americans. 

The next thing to be done was to send an expedition to 
Puerto Rico. This was undertaken by General Miles, who 
took several thousand troops from Santiago, while more 
sailed from Tampa. The Spanish force in the island was 
not large, and no volunteers could be expected to join the 
Spaniards, for wherever the Americans advanced, they met 
a highly enthusiastic reception from the natives, especially 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 517 

at Ponce, their first landing place. The authorities in all 
the towns put forth proclamations welcoming the Ameri- 
cans in most effusive language, the people loading the 
soldiers with praises and presents. The principal city, San 
Juan on the northern coast, which had been ineffectually 
bombarded two months before, was well fortified, and it 
held out, awaiting an attack ; but other places either wel- 
comed the Americans, or made little resistance. 

There is not often anything amusing in purely military 
or naval annals, but the story of the Spanish fleet assembled 
at Cadiz under Admiral Camara may be classed as " a good 
joke." We lived in dread of that fleet for some time. It 
might be directed against our own shores. There came 
rumors at last that its destination was Manila, via the 
Mediterranean and the Suez Canal. 

This proved true ; but the extraordinary operations of the 
fleet amazed and bewildered Europe. It sailed to Port 
Said and then went through the Canal to Suez, paying two 
hundred and forty thousand dollars in the way of tolls; 
then it turned round and came back, at a reduced rate, 
paying one hundred and seventy dollars for its return. 
A New York paper suggested that Spain had probably 
made a special agreement with the Canal Company for 
"round trip " rates. 

At Manila, United States troops arrived from San Fran- 
cisco, and then the German squadron departed, its pres- 
ence being no longer necessary to protect the small group 
of German subjects in the city. 

On August 1 2th, a protocol was signed at Washington 
by M. Cambon, the French Ambassador who had charge 
of Spanish affairs, on the part of Spain, and Mr. Day, the 
United States Secretary of State. It ended the war and 
formed a basis for a treaty to be afterwards made and 
signed. 

By the protocol Spain renounced all claim to sovereignty, 
and all her rights over the Island of Cuba. She gave the 
United States Puerto Rico and an island in the Ladrones 
(Guam) . The United States was to occupy and retain the 



5l8 LAST YEARS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 

city and bay of Manila until the treaty should determine 
the control and form of government of the Philippines. 
By three other articles, the Spanish forcas were to evacuate 
Cuba and Puerto Rico within thirty days, Peace Commis- 
sioners were to be appointed, and all hostilities suspended. 

The prisoners rescued from the wreck of the Spanish 
warships had been sent to America. Admiral Cervera and 
his officers were lodged at Annapolis in the Naval Academy, 
the cadets being all away for their vacation. The sailors 
were sent to an island off the coast of Maine, to which ex- 
cursion steamers went almost daily to visit them. It is to 
be hoped they did not mind being stared at as much as 
Mr. Winston Churchill did, when taken prisoner to Pretoria 
by the Boers. Every possible attention was lavished on the 
Spanish officers. Admiral Cervera's kind protection of 
Hobson gave him a special claim among us to public 
regard. 

An amusing anecdote was told in Baltimore papers of a 
gray-bearded captain of a merchantman who, landing from 
a long voyage, went ashore in a white duck jacket and 
trousers. To his amazement he was followed and stared 
at, some people pressing forward to offer him their hands. 
Embarrassed by these attentions, he entered a restaurant, 
and called for oysters and some beer. When he wanted to 
pay for his refreshment, the waiter refused, — " he could 
not think of it, he had been ordered by the proprietor to 
take no pay." It was not until the honest captain found 
himself at last addressed as Admiral Cervera that the truth 
dawned on him. 

So ended the war with Spain. We need not describe 
the war for the subjugation of the Philippines, for Spain has 
yielded up her right of sovereignty over those islands. She 
shifted the burden of empire — the White Man's burden in 
these days — on to other shoulders, and from a practical 
point of view she may be glad to have got rid of it. 

The paroled Spanish soldiers in Cuba were sent home to 
Spain, before the conclusion of the war. Strange to say, 
they were embarked in Spanish vessels, a Spanish company 



1 




ADMIRAL SCHLEY. 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 519 

having contracted to carry them, under American superin- 
tendence, at a cheaper rate than others. 

The Spanish Cortes closed its session in September, 1898, 
after bitter attacks on the Ministry, the dynasty, and the 
management of the army. The discussion of the bill sanc- 
tioning the signing of the peace protocol by the Spanish 
Government was free from expressions of bitterness toward 
America, and also from any expression of national humilia- 
tion at the Spanish defeats. The Deputies seemed to accept 
the situation, but vented their wrath on those they held re- 
sponsible for it. Sagasta, the Liberal Prime Minister, was, 
of course, the object of the most fierce invective. He told 
them the truth, unpalatable as it may have been to the 
national pride. He said : — 

" We, an anemic nation, were attacked at a time when we 
were acting as honest men would have acted, and we defended 
ourselves. I have sacrificed my prestige, but I have done so 
because I believe that the path I am following is the best." 

The Treaty of Peace with the United States was signed 
in November, and afterwards ratified by the American 
Congress. 

Both in the Cortes and in Congress the Philippine clause 
led to heated discussion, Spaniards being unwilUng to see 
the United States take possession of the islands, and many 
far-seeing men in Congress anticipating the many difficul- 
ties that might arise from the acquisition. 

The most difficult question to be settled in Spain was 
that connected with the finances. As a colored woman in 
my neighborhood once said, " It is n't no disgrace, honey, 
to be poor; but God knows it's mighty ill-convenient." 
And " mighty ill-convenient " Spain has found and is still 
finding it. Attempts to increase the taxes, to reduce sal- 
aries, to diminish the army and navy, lead to riots and to 
Carlisra. The Cadists from time to time make themselves 
felt as a great annoyance to the government, even if they 
fail — as there is every prospect that they will fail — in 
effecting a revolution. It is political guerilla warfare they 



520 LAST YEARS OF THE NINE TEE NTH CENTURY 

are keeping up, especially in Catalonia, where prosperity 
has been much impaired by the loss of commerce with the 
colonies, which drew their supplies chiefly from that part 
of Spain. 

At Burgos, a sort of Church Congress was held some 
months since, where very bitter speeches were made against 
the dynasty. The Nuncio, who had been called on to pre- 
side, read a letter from Pope Leo urging Spaniards to obey 
the law and to discountenance Carlism. It was received 
with hisses, and he broke up the meeting by leaving the 
chair. At last the Liberal Cabinet of Senor Sagasta re- 
signed, and a Conservative Cabinet was formed, to see 
what it could do in its place. 

The Premier was Senor Silvela, whose opinion of the 
situation, a few months before he accepted office, was thus 
given to a Spanish newspaper : — 

" Our actual situation is the most calamitous that has been 
seen since our nationality was constituted, and so badly, by 
the Catholic monarchs. If those who are in a position to 
exercise an influence upon public opinion do not unite, it will 
soon be all up with us. There is no time to lose. If we do 
not forget all our differences, and put all hands to the pumps, 
the ship and cargo will be lost." 

Spain has sold the Ladrone Islands (except Guam), the 
Pelew Islands, and the Caroline Islands to Germany, being 
glad of the price paid into her empty treasury. Having 
no longer any colonies, she has no occasion for a colonial 
Minister, and his ofifice has been abolished. 

" Spain suffers from many causes ; but one of the great diffi- 
culties which she faces to-day, in the attempt to deal with 
the existing situation, is the impossibility to secure anything 
like united public action. The Conservative party is divided 
into five or six small groups, which can very rarely be per- 
suaded into even temporary agreement. There are divisions 
in the Liberal party; and a revolt which has given Sagasta a 
great deal of trouble has recently been headed by Senor 
Gamazo. Then there are the Republicans, the existence of 
whose organization is a constant menace to the dynasty ; and 



THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 52 I 

behind the Republicans are the Carlists, who are always plot- 
ting, and who may at any moment, in a sudden crisis, become 
dangerous. The resources of the country are very largely 
drained ; there is the greatest need of moderation, wisdom, and 
leadership; and yet, although Spain does not lack public men 
of high character and of considerable ability, no statesman has 
appeared on the scene, nor is any likely to appear under exist- 
ing conditions, which tend to develop party rather than 
national leaders."^ 

To conclude, I should like to express a feeling which I 
am sure is in the hearts of all my readers — one of deep 
sympathy for the Queen Regent of Spain, the guardian of 
her fatherless son. 

Queen Maria Christina is one of the noblest of women, 
the daughter of a race unendowed with the gift of domestic 
and personal happiness. My last chapter told the sad 
history of some members of her family ; we may turn back 
the pages of history and find in the record of the Hapsburgs 
other blighted lives. Let us earnestly hope that in days 
to come, "when this tyranny is overpast," — I mean the 
tyranny of public anxiety and financial difficulty, which 
must weigh on her at all hours of the day "and night, — she 
may find peace and joy in the career and character of the 
son she has so carefully brought up, in the appreciation of 
her virtues by the Spanish people, who never before have 
tolerated a foreign ruler, and in the happy marriages of all 
the children whom she loves. 

1 " Outlook." Here I should like to acknowledge my obligations 
to this excellent paper, from which I have quoted freely, especially in 
this last chapter ; for nowhere could I find a rapid summary of the 
chief events of the war so satisfactorily set forth as in its columns. 



INDEX 



Abas-Tuman, 150. 

Abdul Aziz, Shereef of Morocco, 449, 

450, 
Abdul Hamid, 113, 114, 159, 160-1SS; 

his administration, 162; his private 

life, 163; the Armenian massacres, 

169-181; his pilgrimage, 1S3-1S5; 

his own defence, 1S6-18S; 218,221, 

450, 451. 
Abdulla, 316. 
Abdullahi, the Khalifa, 58, 299, 300, 

302, 30S, 315, 316, 317, 319, 322, 

328, 329, 33°) 33h 33^> 333, 334> 

337, 341. 342. 
Abdullat Ahmed, 1S3, 299, 334, 335. 

See also Mahdi. 
Abdul Medjid, 163. 
Abruzzi, Duke d', 469, 470. 
Abu Hammed, 299, 308, 309,310,314, 

315. 317, 318, 321. 
Abyssinia, 106, 302, 319, 336, 340, 

43*5-438, 461, 464, 466. 
Abyssinians, the, 336. 
Academie, the French, 17. 
Acciarito, 465. 
Aden, Gulf of, 436, 437. 
Adowa, the Battle of, 107, 302, 336, 

436. 
Adrianople, 204. 
Adriatic, the, 209. 
^gean Sea, the, 184, 195. 
" Affaire," the, see Dreyfus Case, the. 
Afghanistan, 145, 249, 265, 266, 267, 

275, 27S. 
Afghans, the, 276, 277. 



Africa, France and England in, 49 ; 58, 
93 ; Europe in, 299-45S. See also 
Central Africa, East Africa, North 
Africa, South Africa, West Africa, 
Cafe Colony. 

African Gold Coast Colony, the, 452. 

Africa, West Coast, the, 452-453. 

Afridis, the, 277, 280, 2S2, 283, 284, 
285. 

Afrikander Bond, the, 456. 

Afrikanders, the, 363, 408. 

Afzul, 268. 

Ahmed Fedil, 341, 342. 

Ajaccio, 106. 

Akasha, 310, 311. 

Akkar Khan, 277. 

Alaska, 137, 469. 

Albanians, the, 204, 208. 

Albany, Duke of, 244. 

Albert, Lake, 443. 

Albert, Prince, 17. 

Albrecht, General, 418, 42S. 

Alengon, Due d', 5S. 

Alengon, Duchesse d', 58, 59, 

Alexander I., 55, 119, 152. 

Alexander II,, of Russia, 29, 153, 
223. 

Alexander III., of Russia, 28, 29, 30, 
113; his life's ideal, 113; the Smo- 
lensk plot, 1 1 5-1 16; his death, 117- 
118; 119, 126; coronation of, 128, 
129; 148, 151,153. IS5, 159, 165, 
216, 21S, 227, 474. 

Alexander Karageorgevitch, 229. 

Alexander, King, of Servia, 227, 228, 
482. 

Alexander, of Wiirtemberg, 245. 



524 



INDEX 



Alexander, Prince of Bulgaria, 213, 

215, 221, 222. 
Alexander the Great, 1S9. 
Alexandra Feodorovna, see Alix, 

Princess. 
Alexandria, 300, 301, 304. 
Alfred, Duke of Saxe Coburg, 223, 244. 
Algeria, 150, 440, 441, 449, 450. 
Alice, Princess, of England, 125. 
Ali Wad Halu, 342. 
Alix, Princess, of Darmstadt, 116, 

117, 125; her marriage to Nicholas 

II., 126; coronation of, 12S-130; 

131-157 
Alkund of Swat, 267, 27S, 2S1. 
" Almirante Oquendo," the, 512. 
Alsace, 11, 53, 54,55, 62, no. 
Amadeo, ex-King, 469. 
Aman-uI-Mulk, 267. 
American Baptists, the, 447. 
"American Echo of the Jubilee," 

Andrews', 242. 
" American Monthly Review of 

Reviews," 434. 
" Americanism," defined, 477. 
Americans, the, 364. 
Amir-ul-MuIk, 268, 269, 274. 
Amnesty Bill, tlie, 109. 
Amoor, the Province of, 137. 
Amoor, the River, 124, 137, 13S. 
Analipsis, 203. 
Anand, 290. 

Anarchism, in France, 22-24; com- 
pared with Socialism, 23 ; 30-32. 
Anarchist Federation, the, 24. 
Anarchists, the, 22-24, Z'^~'h'^i 4^) 43> 

45, 98, 102. 
Anatolia, 168. 
Andre, General, loS, 109. 
Andrews, William P., 242. 
Annapolis, 51S. 
" Annual Cyclopedia," Appleton's, 35, 

66. 
Annunciata, Princess, of Naples, 493. 
Antananarivo, 439, 440. 
Anti-clericals, the, in France, 53. 
Anti-Dreyfusards, the, in France, 11, 

86. 
"Anti-Juif," the, 103. 
Anti- Patriots, the League of, in France, 

24. 
Anti-Semites, the. in France, 45. 08. 



Anti-Semitic League, the, in France, 
104. 

Anti-Semitic Youth, the Society of, in 
France, 104. 

Aosta, Duke of, 107, 469. 

Arabia, 162. 

Arabs, the, 182, 183, 189, 190, 447. 

Ararat, Mount, 169. 

Arazona, Prince of, 491. 

Archangel, 156. 

Arctic Ocean, the, 133, 13S, 146, 147, 
152, 155, 156. 

Arctic Regions, the, 469. 

Argenson, M. d', 12. 

Argun, the, 137. 

Armada, the, 243. 

Armenia, 164, 165, 166, 167, t6S, 190, 
192, 193, 251, 260, 261, 263. 

Armenian Christians, the, 114; per- 
secution of, 159, 169-175, 176-1S1; 
164, 165, 166, 169. 

Armenian massacres, the, 49. 

Armstrong, Sir William, 39, 146. 

Arnulf, King, of Bavaria, 4S1. 

Arta, the Gulf of, 208, 209. 

Artegna, 465. 

Arthur, Duke of Connaught, 130, 244. 

Arton, 15, 20, 21, 48. 

Ashanti, tlie, 452, 453. 

Ashanti Campaign, the, 430, 452. 

Asia Minor, 159; 184; 185, 198, 200. 

Aspinwall, William, 13. 

Assouan, 299. 

Assouan Dam, the, 307. 

Assumption, the Church of the, Mos- 
cow, 129. 

Atbara, the Battle of, 324, 325, 326, 

331. 341- 

Atbara, Fort, 315, 320, 322, 323. 

Atbara River, the, 319, 321, 323. 

Athens, 192, 193, 195, 201, 204, 210, 
211. 

Atlassoff, 137. 

Atlares, Fort, 499. 

Audiffret-Pasquier, Due d', 99. 

Aumalc, Due d'. 60. 

Aurore newspaper, the, 70. 

Austin, Alfred, 241. 

Australia, 235, 250, 387. 

Austria, 29, 154, 186, 193, 200, 202, 
221, 222, 230, 461, 462, 464; its lan- 
guages, 481, 483 ; its nationalities, 



INDEX 



525 



482 ; its Parliaments, 483 ; its 
Prime Ministers, 4S1, 482 ; 483-494. 

Auteuil, loi. 

Avignon, 88, 91, 

Ayerst, Lieutenant, 288. 

Azov, the Sea of, 144. 



B. 



Babu, 286. 

Badajos, the storming of, 3S9. 
Badeni, Count, 4S2, 4S3, 484. 
Baden-Powell, General, 429, 430, 431, 

432, 452. 
Bagdad, 1S5. 
Bagehot, Mr., 252. 
Baggara, the, 328, 329, 330, 332, 341, 

342- 
Bagismi, 343. 
Bahr-el-Ghazal, the valley of the, 343, 

447- 
Baihaut, M., 20, 21. 
Baikal, Lake, 139, 140. 
Bairam, the feast of, 163. 
Baird, Captain, 269, 270, 271, 275. 
Baker, Valentine, 301. 
Baku, oil wells of, 144. 
Bal des Quat'-z-Arts, the, 26, 27. 
Balkans, the, 212-230. 
Baltic, the, 156. 
Baltic Provinces, the, 127. 
'• Baltimore," the, 507. 
Bariatinsky, Governor-General, 122. 
Baring, Sir Evelyn, 302. 
Baring Brothers, 306. 
Barlow, 83. 

Barnes, Sir Alexander, 276. 
Barnes, James, 415, 421, 423, 426, 431. 
Bartholomew, the Apostle, 164. 
Barton, General, 400. 
Barton, Miss Clara, 179, 501, 503. 
Bashi-bazouks, the, 193, 196, 197. 
Bastile, the, 35. 
Basutos, the, 388. 
Batetela, the, 448. 
Bayard, Mr., 133, 134. 
Beaconsfield, Lord, 132, 257, 25S 
Beaurepaire, Quesnay de, 21, 61, 72. 
Beauvais, Captain, 85, 86. 
Bechuanaland, 357, 364, 387, 388, 

433) 454, 455-456- 



Begbie, Harold, 430. 

Behring's Sea, 137. 

Behring's Straits, 13S. 

Beira, 434. 

Belgium, 248, 343, 446, 447. 

Belgrade, 229. 

Belmont, 410. 

Beltscheff, M., 219, 220. 

Bengal, 293. 

Bentley, Mr., 447. 

Berber, 299, 314, 317, 318, 321, 322, 
438- 

Berkeley, Mr., 446. 

Berlin, 38, 185, 201. 

Berlin, the Treaty of, 132, 166, 168, 
217, 249, 258. 

Berovitch, Pasha, 193. 

Bertillon, M., 63, 68, 84. 

Bethulie Bridge, 403. 

Beza Valley, the, 283. 

Biliotti, Sir Alfred, 193, 194. 

Billot, General, 69, 70. 

Birmingham, 264. 

Bismarck, 252, 449. 

Black Mountains, the, 226. 

Black Sea, the, 144, 156, 482. 

Black Watch Regiment, the, in South 
Africa, 411. 

" Blackwood's Magazine," 116, 117, 
185. 

Blanco, General, 497, 499, 502, 503. 

Bliss, Rev. E. M., 170. 

Bloemfontein, 348, 384, 396, 403, 409, 
414, 416, 419, 427. 

Blowitz, M. de, 125. 

Blue Nile, the, 323, 341. 

Bodley, J. E. C, 10; on President 
Carnot's administration, 12; on the 
Reinach tragedy, 16; on French in. 
tegrity, 21 ; on President Casimir 
Perier, 34 ; on President Faure, 46 ; 
on the welcome given to Emperor 
Nicholas by France, 53-54. 

Boers, the, 248, 259, 345, 347, 348, 
350, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 359, 3^°, 
366, 367, 368, 369, ZTi, 377, 380, 
387, 3S8, 389, 391, 392, 393, 394, 
395, 396, 398, 399, 400, 401, 402, 
403, 405, 407, 408, 410, 411, 412, 
414, 416, 417, 418, 419, 421, 422, 
425, 427, 428, 429, 454, 455, 456, 
457, 458. 



526 



INDEX 



Boer War, the, 379-435- 
Bogdanovitch, General, 118. 
Boisdeffre, General de, 35, 63, 71, 75, 

12S, 129. 
Bologna, the Bank of, 467. 
Bombay, 2S6, 2S7, 2S8, 319. 
Bonapartists, the, in France, 10, 11, 

45,9s, 105. 
Boniface, 190. 

Bookwalter. Mr., 141, 143, 144. 
Bordeaux, 88. 
Boris, Prince, of Bulgaria, 216, 221, 

222. 
Borku, 450, 451. 
Borrow, George, iSi. 
Bosnia, 223, 226, 4S4. 
Botha, General, 425. 
Bothnia, the Gulf of, 146. 
Bouchamps, Marquis de, 437. 
Boulanger, General, fall of, 11 ; 16, 50, 

97- 
Boulangist movement, the, in France, 

13, 16, 25. 
Boule, the, 210. 
Bourgeoisie, the, popular enmity to, 

33-34, 46-47- 

Bournemouth, 21. 

Brahminisni, 281. 

Brahmins, the, 286, 287, 288, 289. 

Brakfontein, 404. 

Breon, Major de, 85, 86. 

Bresci, Gaetano, 465, 471. 

Bridle Drift, 400. 

Brighf, John, 264. 

Brisson, Adolph, describes the degra- 
dation of Dreyfus, 36-38. 

Brisson, M,, 33, 42, 46, 94. 

British Guiana, 260. 

British House of Commons, the, 
127. 

British India, 265, 268, 284. 

British South Africa, 345. 

Brittany, 75. 

Broadwood, Colonel, 312. 

" Brooklyn," the, 244, 512. 

Brunei, Mr., 13. 

Brussels, 100, 103, 104, 448. 

Bucharest, 214, 225. 

Buckingham Palace, London, 235, 430. 

Budapest, 481- 

Buddu, the, 444, 445. 

Buffet, M., 100, 104. 



Bulavvayo, 378, 428, 454. 

Bulgaria, 176, 179, 212, 213, 214, 215, 

216, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223- 

226. 
Bulgarians, the, 213, 214, 216, 221. 
Buller, Sir Redvers, 396, 397, 398, 

399. 40°, 401. 402, 403, 4°4. 4°5> 

406, 407, 413. 414, 416. 
Buller, Sir William, 358. 
Burdett-Coutts, Mr., 421. 
Burger, Schalk, 385, 425. 
Burgers, President T. F., of the 

Transvaal, 344, 345, 349, 350. 
Burghersdorp, 380. 
Burgos, 520. 

Burleigh, Bennett, 202, 438, 441. 
Burnaby, Captain, 145. 
Burnham, 454. 
Byron, Lord, 166. 

C. 

Cabanas, 511. 

Cabul, 236, 268, 269, 276, 277, 284. 

Cadiz, 504, 508, 517- 

Cagni, Captain, 469. 

Cairo, 182, 304, 310, 334, 339. 

Caisse de la Dette, the, 305, 308. 

Caliph, defined, iS-i- 

Camara, Admiral, 517. 

Cambon, M., 517- 

Camerons, the, 324. 

Campbell, Captain, 269, 270. 

Canada, 154, 235, 241, 250, -^Z"]. 

Candia, iSg, 198. 

Canea, 192, 194, 195, 198, 466. 

Canning, George, 261, 350. 

Canovas, Senor, 474, 497. 

Canterbury, the Archbishop of, 23S, 

254, 256- 
Cape Coast Castle, 453- 
Cape Colony, 235, 250, 346, 347, 353, 

358, 360, 363; 370, 379, 3S1, 3S3, 

384, 3S6, 38 7, 389, 397, 40S, 41=, 

413, 432, 454, 456-457- 
Cape to Cairo Railroad, the, 58, 379 ; 

380, 384, 446, 447- 
Capetown, 362, 378; 387, 396, 412, 

413, 414, 418, 419, 428, 429, 454, 

455, 456- 
Cape Verde Islands, the, 50S. 



INDEX 



527 



Capuchins, the Church of the, Vienna, 
490. 

Carlists, the, in Spain, 505, 519, 520, 
521. 

Carmen, Sylva, 223. 

Carnot, Lazare, 11. 

Carnot, Sadi, see Sadi-Carnot. 

Carol I. of Roumania, 223, 225. 

Caroline Islands, the, 520. 

Carpentras, 8S, 91. 

Carrington, Sir Frederick, 454. 

Casimir-Perier, President Jean, 33- 
45 ; his election, 33 ; the Dreyfus 
affair, 35-39; his resignation, 40-41 ; 
his origin, 41 ; reasons for his resigna- 
tion, 42-45; 46, 48, 51, 56, -JT, 7S. 

Caspian Sea, the, 144, 156. 

Castellane, Comtesse de, 60. 

Castro, M. de, 68. 

Catalonia, 520. 

"Catholic World," the, 291, 477. 

Caucasus, the, 150. 

Cavaignac, M., 70, 71. 

Cavite, 506, 507. 

Cecil, Lord Edward, 261. 

Cecil, Lord Robert, 25S. 

Cellini, Benvenuto, 19. 

Central Africa, 51, 71, 183, 259, 338, 

339> 446. 
Central Asia, 135, 144, 275. 
Central India, 293. 
Cential Soudan, the, 450, 451. 
"Century Magazine," the, 1S6. 
Cernuschi, 108. 
Cervera, Admiral, 508, 509, 510, 511, 

512, 513. 514, 51.8- 
Cetewayo, 357. 
Cette, 32. 
Ceuta, 449. 
Cevennes, the, 94. 
Ceylon, the Island of, 418, 457. 
" Chabrol, Fort," 103. 
Chad, Lake, 450. 
Chadwick, Rev. Mr., 500. 
Charity Bazaar, the, disaster at, 58. 
Chamberlain, Joseph, 24S, 261, 263, 

264, 370, 385, 391, 454. 
Chamber of Deputies, the (France), 

composition of, 9; 14, 16, 21, 25, 

26, 28, 30, 40, 44, 62, 65, 70, 71, 94, 

lOI. 

Champ de Mars, the, 36. 



Chanoine, General, 71, 452. 

Chanoire, Lieutenant, 451,452. 

Charles II., 114, 449. 

Charles VII., 53. 

Charles, King, of Roumania, 482. 

Charles Edward, the Pretender, 476. 

Charles Louis, Archduke, of Austria, 

485, 492, 493. 
Charles of Hohenzollern, 223. 
Charles Theodore, Duke, 4S6. 
Chartered South African Company, 

the, 371, 454, 455. 
Charterliouse School, the, 430. 
Chartres, Due de, 106, 437. 
Cherche Midi, military prison, the, 64, 

72. 
Chicago Red Cross Ambulance Corps, 

the, 149. 
Chieveley, 401. 
Chili, 62. 
China, 49, 135, 137, 138, 200, 340, 

449, 464, 46S. 
Chitral, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 

273, 274, 275, 319. 
Chitralis, the, 267, 269. 
Chotek, Countess, 494. 
Christian Socialists, 27. 
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 262, 
Churchill, Winston Spencer, 299-300, 

3°i. 312, 314, 317, 319, 320, 333, 

336, 338. 340, 341, 393. 397. 399, 

402, 403, 405, 424. 
Cingolo, 404. 
Circassians, the, 304, 310. 
Clam, Major du Paty de, 36, 63, 65, 

68, 69, 71, 72, 80, 83, 109. 
Clapton, 256. 
Clarence, Duke of, 245. 
Clarendon, Lord, 17. 
Clemenceau, M., 94. 
Clementine, Princess, of Orleans, 216. 
Clericals, the, in France, 10, 11, 23, 

45, 98, 99. 
Clery, Count, 484. 
Clery, General, 401. 
Cleveland, President Grover, 260. 
Clothilde, Princess, 105. 
Cobden, Mr., 264. 
"Cocarde" newspaper, the, 25. 
Colenso, 398, 399, 400, 413. 
Colesberg, 412, 413. 
Colley, Sir George, 433. 



528 



INDEX 



Columbia River, the, 137. 
Colville, Captain, 313. 
Communards, the, in France, 98. 
Commune, the, 81. 
Congo, the, 337, 446. 
Congo Free State, 343, 446-448. 
Congress of Peace, the, 148-150. 
Congress of the United States, the, 

127, 501, 502, 503, 504, 50S, 519. 
Conrad of Monferrat, 190. 
Conservatives, the, in France, 9, 10. 
Constantine, Prince, of Greece, 1S3, 

204, 205, 206, 207. 
Constantine, Grand Duke, of Russia, 

119. 
Constantinople, 50, 155, 133, 159, 162, 

166, 168, 174, 175, 176, 177; i/S. 

179, 180, 182, 183, 184, 186, 1S8, 

190, 193, 194, 196, 198, 199, 200, 

202, 203, 204, 213, 214, 218, 220, 

224, 258, 278. 
Constitutional Monarchy, in France, 

II. 
"Contemporary Review," the, 159, 

252. 
Conybeare, 83. 
Coomassie, 452, 453. 
Copenhagen, 118. 
Coppee, Frangois, 93. 
Corinth, the Isthmus of, 18. 
Corregidor Island, 506. 
Cortes, the Spanish, 505, 519. 
Cosmopolitan League, the, in France, 

24. 
Cossacks, the, 124, 135, 136, 139, 

140. 
Coutts's Banking House, London, 

Cranbourne, Lord, 258. 

Crawford, Emily, 94. 

Crawford, F. Marion, 120. 

Cretans, the, 192, 193, 198. 

Crete, 49, 164, 189-199, 201, 204, 211, 

251, 260, 261, 464, 466. 
Crimea, the, 118. 

Crimean War, the, 67, 132, 13S, 139. 
Crispi, Signor, 465, 466, 467, 472. 
Crispi ministry, the, in Italy, 465. 
Cristiani, Count, loi. 
" Cristoval Colon," the, 512, 513. 
Cromer, Lord, 302, 304, 305, 306, 307, 

334, 437- 



Cronje, General P. A., 368, 369, 370, 
388, 394, 406, 414, 415, 416, 417, 
418,428, 429, 457. 

Cronstadt, French fleet at, 28, 29. 

Crusaders, the, 165. 

Cuba, 307, 497, 498, 500, 501, 502, 
503, 5°4, 50S, 509, 517, 518. 

Cubans, the, 497, 499, 511, 513. 

Cunningham, Major, 443. 

Curia, the Cardinals of the, 475^476. 

Carrie, Sir Philip, 166. 

Custozza, the Battle of, 67. 

Cyprus, the Convention of, 166. 

Cyprus, the Island of, 167, 300. 

Czechs, the, 462, 482, 483, 484. 



D. 



"Daily Chronicle," the London, 241. 

"Daily Mail," 322. 

" Daily News," the London, 105. 

"Daily Telegraph," the, 438. 

Dakheila, 341. 

Danube, the, 229, 482. 

Dardanelles, the, 184. 

Darfur, 300, 327. 

Dark Ages, the, 189. 

Darmstadt, 117, 131. 

Darmstadt, Hesse, 125. 

Darras, General, 37. 

Dauphin^, 33. 

Davies, 37S. 

Davis, Richard Harding, on the cor- 
onation of Nicholas II., 128, 129, 
130; 202, 209, 210; on the 
Diamond Jubilee, 234, 238, 239, 

Day, Secretary, 517. 

Dfecle, Lionel, 430. 

Decorations scandal, the, in France, 

13- 

Dejemaleddin Bey, 160. 

Delagoa Bay, 426, 434, 435. 
Delagoa Bay Railroad, the, 427, 434. 
Delcass6, M., 35, 81, 102, loS, 343, 

443. 451- 
Demange, Maitre, 65, 68, 71, 74, 80, 

84, 87. 
Derby, Lord, 258. 
Deroulede, Paul, 93, 96, 97, 100, 104, 

105, 107, 109. 
Dervishes, the, 299, 302, 308, 309, 



INDEX 



529 



311, 314, 316, 31S, 319, 320, 322, 

323. 324. 328, 329, 33°. 33S, 341, 

342, 43S, 445- 
Deschnew, 137. 
Desert Railway, the, 315, 319. 
Devil's Isla-nd, 38, 61, 65, 66, 73, 74, 

90. 
Devons, the, in South Africa, 407. 
Dewey, Admiral George, 505, 506, 

507, 508, 512. 
Dhanis, Baron, 448. 
Diamond Jubilee, Queen Victoria's, 

233- 
Diamond Mines, at Kimberley, 356, 

409. 
Dicey, Sir Edward, 163, 219, 221. 
Dietrichs, Admiral, 507. 
Dilke, Sir Charles, 223, 261. 
Disraeli, Mr., 249, 25S. 
Disraeli Ministry, the, 249. 
Dobrudscha, 223. 
Dohad, 290, 291, 294. 
Dolma-Baghtche Palace, the, 162. 
Domoko, 204, 206, 208, 466. 
Don, the, 144. 

Dongola, 30S, 311, 315, 316, 322. 
Dongola Campaign, the, 308-320, 

337. 

Don Miguel, of Portugal, 493. 

Doornskop, 367, 1^^^„ 3S0. 

Dost Mohammed, 276. 

Dreyfus, Captain Alfred, 35 ; degra- 
dation of, 36-39 ; 44, 49 ; at school, 
62; the bordereau, 63; his impris- 
onment, 63-65 ; the court-martial, 
65 ; his sentence, 65 ; later develop- 
ments, 65-73; his life at Devil's 
Island, 73 ; the second court-martial, 
73-80; the second sentence, 85 ; his 
pardon, 86, 88; his new life, 88-92; 
log. 

Dreyfus, Jacques, 62. 

Dreyfus, Madame, 69, 75, 76, "]•], 88, 
91, 92. 

Dreyfus, Matthieu, 68, 75, 88, 89, 90. 

Dreyfus Case, the, 35-39, 44, 45, 54, 
60, 62-92, 94, 96, 98, 99, 102, 103, 
109, 229, 340, 452. 

Drome, the, 95. 

Drumont, 98. 

Dual Alliance, the, 56-57. 

Dublin, 247. 



Dublin Fusiliers, the, in South Africa, 

407. 
Duchand, 94. 
Duchesne, General, 440. 
Dundee, 3S9, 391, 393, 395, 398. 
Dundonald, Lord, 401, 415. 
Du Plessis, 372, 374, 375, ■},-]%, 424. 
Dupuy, Charles, 25, 30, 35, 42, 43, 

80, 97, loi. 
Durban, 371, 3S7, 38S, 394, 397, 399. 
Dutch East India Company, the, 346. 



East Africa, 430. 

East African Company, the, 444. 

Eastern Asia, French colonies in, 51. 

Eastern Europe, 201. 

Eastern Turkey, 178. 

East Indies, the, 346, 505. 

Eberhard, Duke, 245. 

J^cole des Hautes i^tudes, the, 50. 

ificole Militaire, the, 36, 37, 66. 

" Economist," the, 212, 230. 

Edgar, Mr., 379. 

Edhem Pasha, 198, 202, 203, 206, 

207, 208. 
Edinburgh, 262. 

Edward, son of Duke of York, 126. 
Egypt, 17, 58, iSi, 1S2, 1S9, 191, 249, 

299-307 ; 30S, 309, 387, 436. 
Egypt, the Khedive of, 304, 305, 319. 
Egyptians, the, 311, 312, 313; 314 

3i5> 3i8> 3^9, 323, 326, 33°, 33i, 

332, 334- 
"Egypt in 1898," Steevens', 304. 
Eiffel, M., 14. 
Eiffel Tower, the, 14. 
Elandslaagte, the Battle of, 3S9, 391- 

393, 396, 410- 
Elandspruit, 424. 
El Caney, 513, 514, 515. 
Elena, Princess, of Montenegro, 117, 

227, 461, 469, 470. 
Elissona, 203. 
Elizabeth, Archduchess, of Austria, 

488, 492. 
Elizabeth, Empress, of Austria, 468, 

474, 485, 486, 487, 4SS-491. 
Elizabeth, Princess, of England, 125. 
Elizabeth, Queen, of Roumania, 223. 



34 



530 



INDEX 



El Obeid, 334, 341, 342. 

Eloff, Lieutenant, 366. 

El Tab, 300, 301, 309. 

Elysee, the Palace of the, 52, 61, 96, 

97- 
Emin Pasha, 444. 
Emir Pasha, 338. 
Empire, the Second, in France, 11, 16, 

26, 55. 
England, iS; in Africa, 49; 51, 52, 

57, 58. 8I) 93, 98, 107, 132, 145. 
166, 167, 168, 177, 185, 186, 191, 
196, 197, 200, 210; the Diamond 
Jubilee, 233-248 ; ministers of, 249- 
264; frontier wars in India, 265- 
285 ; in Egypt, 299-307 ; the Don- 
gola Campaign, 308-320, 337 ; the 
Transvaal, 344-355 : 360; the Boer 
War, 379-435 ; 436, 438, 443, 446, 
449,450,451,457,458,468, 502,505. 

" England in the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury," Latimer's, 233, 254, 281. 

English Channel, the, 243. 

Epirus, 201, 208. 

Equatoria, 332. 

Erpurt, 55. 

Eritrea, 437, 466. 

" Erniak," the, 146, 156. 

Erzeroum, 171, 177. 

Esquimaux, the, 134. 

Estcourt, 399. 

Esterhazy, Major Charles Marie Fer- 
dinand Walsin, 66-69, 71, 72, 80, 
90, 105, 107, 109. 

Etampes jail, 21. 

Ethiopia, 436. 

Ethnike Hetairia, the, 201, 203. 

Eugdnie, Empress of France, 17. 

Euphrates, the, 164, 165, 173, 175. 

" Europe in Africa in the Nineteenth 
Century," Latimer's, 299, 335, 344, 
356, 436, 441, 443, 444, 448, 450. 



F. 

Famine Fund, the, in India, 293, 294. 
Farrar, George, 361 ; 372, ■^•j-i,, 378. 
Fashoda, 57, 81, 98, 259, 336, 337, 

338, 339, 340, 437. 
Fashoda affair, the, 107 ; 336-343, 443. 
Fashoda swamp, the, 57. 



Fatima, 183. 

Faure, President Felix, 35; his elec- 
tion, 46 ; his origin, 47 ; his mar- 
riage, 47-48 ; his death, 48, 61, 93 ; 
the visit of Emperor Nicholas, 52- 
53, 132; his visit to Russia, 56; 
96, 129, 336, 437, 474. 

Faure, Madame, 47. 

Faure, Mile. Lucie, 60. 

Faure, Sebastian, 102. 

Favilla, Signer, 467. 

Feodor, Saint, 126. 

Ferdinand, Archduke, of Austria, 494. 

Ferdinand, Emperor, of Austria, 484. 

Ferdinand, Prince, of Bulgaria, 98, 
212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 218, 219, 
221, 222. 

Ferdmand, Prince, of Hohenzollern, 
223. 

Fezzan, 183. 

"Figaro," the, ig, 82, 88, 91. 

Filipinos, the, 285. 

Finland, 125, 127, 152, 153, 154, 155. 

Finland, the Bishop of, 237. 

Finland, the Gulf of, 147. 

Finns, the, 152, 153, 154. 

"Fire and Sword in the Soudan," 
Slatin Pasha's, 300. 

Firkeh, 311. 

First Regiment (U, S.), at Santiago, 
514. 

Fitzpatrick, J. P., 348, 351, 356, 357, 

369, 374, 383- 

Flemings, the, 248. 

Floquet, M., 16. 

Florence, 20. 

Folkestone, 88. 

Fontenoy, the Battle of, 149. 

Forzinetti, Major, 64. 

" Fram," the, 469. 

France, parliamentary system of, 9 
internal administration of, 9 ; com- 
position of the Chamber of Dep- 
uties, 9; changes of ministry, 9-10; 
public sentiment in the provinces, 
10 ; the President the figure-head 
of, 10 ; Napoleon's system of local 
administration in, 12; idea of patri- 
otismin, 12; President Carnot's ad- 
ministration, 12-13 ; the Panama 
affair, 13-21 ; Leo XIII. 's Encycli- 
cal, 22 ; anarchism in, 22-24, 30-32 ; 



INDEX 



531 



student riots in, 26-28 ; the Russian 
"alliance," 29-30; assassination of 
President Carnot, 31-32 ; popular 
enmity to the bourgeoisie in, 33-34; 
in Africa, 49 ; colonial management 
in, 52; alliance with Russia, 56; 
anti-semitic feeling in, 104 ; pre- 
tenders in, 98-104 ; intemperance 
in, 108; 177, 186, 191, 200, 209, 
259, 305 ; the Marchand Mission, 

336-343 ; 436, 438, 439» 443. 446, 
447,449,451,463, 475. 
"France in the Nineteenth Century," 

Latimer's, 10, 12, 17, 485. 
Francia, Dr., 434. 
Francis Joseph, Emperor, of Austria, 

482, 4S3, 4S4-494. 
Franco-German War, the, 42, 67. 
Franco-Russian alliance, the, see Dual 

alliance, the. 
Frazer, Mr., 419. 
Frazer, Mrs. Hugh, 120, 122. 
Frederick, Emperor, of Germany, 55, 

184. 
"Free Convalescent Homes for the 

Poor," London, 256. 
Free Staters, the, 38S, 422, 425. 
French, General, 389, 415, 417; 423. 
French Guiana, 38, 65, 74. 
French Pretenders, 57, 98-104. 
French Revolution, the, 11, 12, 55. 
Frere, Sir Bartle, 353. 
Freycinet, M. de, 22, 39, 40. 
Freystetter, Major, Zt„ 107. 
Fritch, Major, 108. 
Frohsdorf, 11. 
*' From Capetown to Ladysmith," 

Steevens', 390, 392. 
Fulham, 256. 
Furka Pass, the, 208. 
" Furor," the, 512, 513. 



Galatz, 225. 

Gallieni, General, 440, 441. 

Gallifet, Marquis de, 43, 81, 82, 86, 

%T, 102, 107, 108. 
Gamazo, Seiior, 520. 
Gambetta, 50. 
Garcia, General, 508, 511. 



Garibaldi, Ricciotti, 200, 462, 466, 

Garrett, F. Edmund, 346. 

Gatacre, General, 274, 275, 319, 322, 
398, 409, 412, 413. 

Gatchina, 118. 

Gautsch, Baron, 482, 483. 

Gebel Surgham, the, 328, 329, 330. 

Gedaref, 341. 

" Gelderland," the, 426. 

Geneva, 18S, 489, 491. 

Genghiz Khan, 135. 

Gennadius, 224, 225. 

George IV., of England, 233. 

George, King, of Greece, 195, 201, 210. 

George, Prince, of Greece, 120, 197, 
19S, 204, 210, 251. 

George, Prince, of Russia, 120, 150- 
151. 

Gerault, Richard M., 44. 

Germain, Captain, 339. 

German Bagdad Railroad, the, 145. 

German East Africa, 445. 

German Lutheran Church, the, Jeru- 
salem, 1S4. 

German West Africa, 3S0. 

Germany, 29, 49, 53, 55, 57, 62, no, 
132, 176; 183, 184, 185, 197, 200, 
210, 343.352, 3S2, 520. 

Gibbons, Cardinal, 477, 478. 

Gibraltar, the Straits of, 185, 449, 

Gilgit, 266, 268, 269, 272, 273. 

Girouard, Major, 310. 

Gisela, Archduchess, of Austria, 486. 

Gladstone, William E., 17, 159, 195, 
226, 249, 250, 251, 252, 253, 254, 
255, 257, 259, 261, 262, 263, 264, 

302, 303, 357. 

Gladstone, Mrs. William E., 254, 255, 

256. 
Gladova, 4S2. 

Glencoe, 389, 391, 396, 410. 
"Gloucester," the, 513. 
Gomez, General, 508. 
" Good Words," 94. 
Gordon, General Charles, 249, 300, 

303, 334, 335, 337, 447- 

Gordon Highlanders the, 2S2; in 

South Africa, 390, 406, 407. 
Gortschakoff, Prince, 166. 
Gough, Lord, 281. 
Gould, Miss Anna, 60. 
Gourkas, the, 280. 



532 



INDEX 



Gourko, General, 127. 

Govind, 2S1. 

Graham, General Sir Gerald, 300. 

Grand Prix, the, 101. 

Grant, Baron, 352. 

Gras Pan, 410. 

Gratz, 493. 

Greece, 49, 191, 193, 194, i95) i96> 

197, 200, 201, 202, 209, 210, 211, 

222, 251, 253,470. 
Greece, the Queen of, 19S. 
Greek Christians, the, igo. 
Greek Church, the, 114, 115. 
Greek Revolution, the, in 1820, 191. 
Greeks, the, 1S9, 196, 200, 201, 203, 

204, 205, 206, 20S, 209, 279, 306. 
Greene, Mr., 371. 
Greenwich, 31. 
Gregorians, the, 166. 
Gregorowski, Jud^e, 372, 377. 
Gregory the Illuminator, Saint, 164. 
Grery, President Jules, 9, 11, 46. 
Grey, Lord, 454. 
Grosser, Horace G., 152. 
Grudzinska, Janetta, 119. 
Guam, 517. 

Guantanarao, Bay of, 511. 
Guerin, Jules, 98, 103, 104, 105. 
Gujerat, 290. 

Gurdon, Lieutenant, 26S, 269. 
Gustavus Adolphus, 154. 



H. 

Habert, Marcel, 96, roo. 
Hadda Mullat of Jarobi, 278. 
Hague, the, 149. 
Hairi Pasha, 204. 
Hale, S3. 

Halepa, the Poet of, 192, 199. 
Hamdi Pasha, 204. 
Hamideih cavalry, the, 169. 
Hamilton, General Ian, 3S9, 422, 423. 
Hamilton, Lord George, 292. 
Hamlin, Rev. Cyrus, 170, 187. 
Hammond, John Hay, 361, 372, 373, 

378, 3S0. 
Hampton Roads, 505. 
Hanotaux, Gabriel, 35, 48, 49 ; origin 

of. 49-51; 56- 
Hapsburgs, the, 521. 



Harcourt, Sir William Vernon, 262, 263, 

Harley, Lieutenant, 269, 270, 272. 

Harpoot, 172, 174, 176, 179. 

Harrison, Benjamin, 97. 

Hart, General, 400. 

Havana, 498, 499, 500, 503 ; 505, 508, 

509, 511, 515. 
Havre, 46. 

Hawarden Castle, 254, 255, 256. 
Hawthorne, Julian, 291. 
Heany, Major, 363, 366. 
Hecker, Father, 477. 
Henri, Prince, of Orleans, 98, 105, 106, 

107,336,437, 469,491. 
Henry, 42. 

Henry, Major, 62, 63, 64, 69, 71, 72, 83. 
Henry, Prince, of Battenberg, 452. 
Hepha, 1S4. 
Hepworth, Rev. George H., 168, 174, 

iSi. 
" Herald," the New York, 507. 
Herat, 145. 

Herz, Dr. Cornelius, 15, 20, 21, 48. 
Hertzegovina, 223, 226, 484. 
Hicks, 309, 324. 
Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 351. 
Highland Brigade, the, in South 

Africa, 410, 411, 412, 416, 417. 
Himalayas, the, 265. 
Hindoo Koosh Mountains, the, 265, 

275, 277. 
Hindooism, 2S8. 
Hindoos, the, 281, 2S7. 
Hinterland of Algeria, the, 343, 449. 
Hoarst, Lieutenant, 451. 
Hobson, Lieutenant, 509-511, 5r8. 
Hobson, Richard Holt, 252. 
Hodgson, Sir Frederick, 452, 453. 
Holden, Captain, 363, 366. 
Holland, 352, 382. 
Holland, Queen of, 426, 474. 
Hollanders, Kruger's, 382. 
Holy See, the, 22. 
Homeless Poor Act, the, 256. 
Hong Kong, 505, 506, 507. 
Horton, General, 423. 
House of Charity for Distressed Per- 
sons, the, Soho, 255. 
House of Commons, the English, 252, 

254, 258, 262, 264. 
House of Lords, the English, 258, 

261, 262, 263. 



INDEX 



533 



Horas, the, 439, 441. 

Howard, Hubert, 332. 

Humbert, King, of Italy, 464, 465, 

470, 471, 472, 473>474. 475. 47S, 480- 
Hungary, 481-494. 
Huntchagists, the, 114, 167, 168, 176, 

1S7. 
Hunter, Sir Archibald, 398. 
Hunter, General, 312, 317, 318, 322, 

323. 324, 327, 331- 
Hunzas, the, 272, 273. 
Hussars, the, in India, 430. 
Hutton, Mr., 252. 



Idomeneus, 189. 

Imaum-ul-Muslimin, 182. 

Imperial Light Horse, the, in South 

Africa, 390. 
India, 145, 234; frontier wars in, 265- 

285 ; the plague and the famine in, 

286-295; 388, 3S9, 396, 412, 430. 
" Indian Frontier War, 1897," James', 

279. 
Indian Ocean, the, 141, 340, 357. 
"India," Steevens', 266, 2S5. 
"Infanta Maria Teresa," the, 512. 
Inniskilling Hill, 405. 
Internationals, the League of, in 

France, 24. 
Intombi Spruit, 396. 
Ionian Isles, the, 487. 
Ionian Sea, the, 209. 
Ireland, 236, 246, 247, 250, 258. 
Ireland, Archbishop, 477. 
Irish Home Rule, 250, 261. 
Irkutsk, 137, 139. 
Iron Gate, the, 482, 
Irtish, the River, 134. 
Islam, 114, 115, 159, 160, 164, 166, 

i73> 1S7, 190, 278, 315,450. 
Ismail Pasha, 305, 310. 
Italians, the, 302, 319, 336, 436, 437, 

470. 
Italy, 10, 29, 127, 186, 200, 246, 253, 

343. 461-4S0. 
"Italy in the Nineteenth Century," 

Latimer's, 302, 436, 461, 4S4, 486, 

487. 
Ivan the Terrible, 136, 139. 



Jaalin, the, 316, 317, 320, 327. 
Jackson, Colonel, 339, 340. 
Jacobin Club, the, in France, 45. 
Jacobsdal, 414, 415, 416, 417, 419. 
James, Lionel, 279. 
Jameson, Dr., 353, 359, 361, 362, 363, 

364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 
371, 381,454- 

Jameson, Mr., 363. 

Jameson Raid, the, 51, 349, 353, 356- 

378, 379, 380, 3S2, 3S4, 433, 454, 

456. 
Jandol, 268, 269. 
Jandolis, the, 269. 
Japan, 49, 120, 138, 141, 200, 306. 
Jehad, the, 326. 

Jehadin, the, 313, 324, 325, 329. 
Jellallabad, 275. 
Jenkins, Colonel, 277. 
Jenkins, Lieutenant, 500. 
Jerusalem, 54, 184, 185. 
Jesuit missionaries, the, 166. 
Jeunesse Royaliste, the, loi, 104. 
Jewett, Mr., 177. 
Jews, the, in France, 104 ; in Rou- 

mania, 225. 
Johannesburg, gold fields of, 356; 

358, 359, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 

365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 372, 
378, 379, 380, 381, 387, 394, 422, 
423. 425, 454- 

John, King, of Abyssinia, 334. 
Johnston, Sir Harry H., 446. 
Joinville, Prince de, 99, 106. 
Jouaust, Colonel, •]•], 79, 85, 86. 
Joubert, General Pietrus Jacobus, 345, 

349, 352, 368, 388, 398, 425, 428, 

429, 432, 433- 
Joubert, Mrs., 432. 
" Journal des Debats," the, 34. 
"Journal Official," the, 86. 
Julliard, General, 102. 



K. 



Kabba Rega, 443, 444, 445. 

Kaffirs, the, 281, 348, 365, 394, 415, 

421,433,454. 456. 
Kamtchatka, 137. 
Kandahar, 236. 



534 



INDEX 



Kanem, 343, 451. 

Karl Ludwig, Archduke, see Charles 

Louis. 
Kashmir, 266, 269. 
Kashmir Rifles, the, 269, 270, 272, 

273. 275- 
Kassala, 309, 319. 341. 
Kesnan, Mr., 516. 
Kekewich, Colonel, 409. 
Kelly, Colonel, 272, 273, 274, 275. 
Kelly-Kenney, General, 247. 
Kennan, Mr., 134. 
Kerreri Heights, the, 32S. 
Kew Gardens, 246. 
Key West, 49S, 501. 
Khalifa, see Abdiillahi. 
Khama, 454, 456. 
Khartoum, 249, 299, 302, 310, 321, 

322, 32S, 334, 337, 342, 378, 437, 

445- 
Khyber, the, 2S4. 
Khyber Pass, the, 275. 
Khyber Rifles, the, 276, 284. 
Kiamil Pasha, 1S7. 
Kielmansegg, Count, 4S2. 
Kimberley, diamond mines, at, 356; 

3S7- 3S8, 397' 403. 409, 410, 4H, 
414, 415, 416, 429, 431, 455. 

King's College, London, 13. 

Kingsley, Charles, 27. 

Kingsley, Miss Mary, 452. 

Kioto, 120, 122, 

Kipling, Rudyard, 241. 

Kitchener, General Horatio Herbert, 
300, 301, 302 ; the Dongola Cam- 
paign, 308-320 ; Atbara and Omdur- 
man, 321-335; Fashoda, 336-343; 
37S; in South Africa, 412-430. 

Klobb, Colonel, 451, 452. 

Knezevicli, 229. 

Kock, General, 389. 

Kock, Mr. 391. 

Kohat, 280. 

Koodoesburg, 416. 

Koodoesrand Drift, 415, 416. 

Koran, the, 114, 160, 164, 166, 177, 
181, 1S2. 

Kordofan, 316, 319, 324, 332, 334, 

341, 342- 
Kossuth, Francis, 494. 
Kotze, De, 424. 
Krause, De, 423. 



Kremlin, the, Moscow, 157. 

Kroonstadt, 419. 

Kruger, President, Stephanus Johan- 
nes Paulus of the Transvaal, 345, 
346-355 i t'^^ Jameson Raid, 356- 
37S ; the Boer War, 379-435 ; 454. 

Kruger, Mrs., 372, 425. 

Krugersdorp, 367, 369. 

Kurds, the, 115, 165, 167, 168, 169 
170, 171, 172, 175, 176, 177. 

Kurile Islands, the, 121. 



Labori, Madame, 78, 79. 

Labori, Maitre, 70, 78, 79, 83, 84, 88. 

Ladrone Islands, the, 520. 

Ladysmith, 3S9, 391, 392, 394, 395, 
396, 397, 398, 401. 402, 403, 404, 
405, 406, 407, 409, 414, 415, 416, 

429- 431- 
Lafayette, Marquis de, 477. 
Lamartine, 17. 
Landi, Kotal, 284. 
Landtag, the Bohemian, 4S3. 
Lanyon, Colonel Sir Owen, 346, 353. 
Larissa, 204, 205, 206, 207. 
Laroche, M., 440. 
Latin Quarter, the, 26. 
Lawley, A. L., 365. 
Lawrence, Sir John, 2S3. 
League of Patriots, the, in France, 97, 

loi, 104. 
Lebon, M., "i^,, 74. 
Lebrun-Renault, Captain, 66. 
Lee, Austin, 25. 

Lee, Colonel Fitzhugh, 498, 501. 
Legion of Honor, the, 15, 42, 106. 
Legitimists, the, 10, 11, 12, 23, 45, 

98, 99. 

Leicester Square, London, 256. 
Leighton, Archbishop, 114. 
Lemercier-Picard, 72. 
Leo XIII., Pope, Encyclical of, 22-23 ; 

99. 217, 252, 473, 475-480,488, 503, 
520. 

Leonard, 361. 
Leontieff, Count, 438. 
Leopold, King, 446, 447. 
Leopold, Prince, 244. 
Lesseps, Charles de, 14, i8k 



INDEX 



535 



Lesseps, Ferdinand de, 13 ; sketch of, 
17-1S; death of, 19; OlHvier's tri- 
bute to, 19-20. 

" Letters written from Japan,'' Fra- 
zer's, 120. 

Lewis Bey, 327, 330, 341. 

Leyds, Dr., 248, 371. 

Liao-tung Peninsula, the, 137. 

Liberal Unionists, the, in England, 
250. 

Linares, General, 511, 514, 515. 

" Lippincott's Magazine," 93. 

Lister, Sir Thomas, 25. 

" Littell's Living Age," 36, 485. 

" Little Englanders," 263. 

Livadia, 118. 

Liverpool, 88. 

Lobanoff, Prince, 51, 56, 125, 193. 

Lobengula, 453, 454. 

Lockhart, Sir William, 283. 

Loire, the Army of the, 67. 

Lombards, the, 462, 

Lombardy, 127, 484, 4S5. 

Lome, Seiior de, 49S, 501. 

London, 235, 236, 237, 239, 254, 255, 
256, 262, 371, 430, 431. 

London Bridge, 235, 

London Missionary Society, the, 438, 
441. 

" London to Ladysmith, via Pretoria," 
Churchill's, 399. 

Long, Colonel, 400. 

Longwood, at St. Helena, 457. 

Lorenzo Marquez, 358, 425, 426, 434. 

Lorraine, 11, 53, 54, 55, no. 

Lothaire, Major, 448. 

Lottery Bill, the, 14. 

Loubet, President ^mile, 22, 6r, 81, 
86, 88, 93-110; his nomination, 94 ; 
his early life, 95 ; anecdotes of, 95 ; 
his character, 97; his administra- 
tion, 98-110. 

Loubet, Madame, 95. 

Louis XIV., 51, 55. 

Louis XVIIL, 33, 84. 

Louis Blanc, 34, 104. 

Louis Napoleon, 105. 

Louis Philippe, 10, ■7,7>^ 34,f42, 98, 474. 

Louis of Wiirtemberg, 245. 

Luccheni, 491. 

Ludovica, Duchess, of Bavaria, 4S5, 
4S6, 4S7. 



Luyard, Captain, 444. 
Lumsden, Sir P., 283, 
Lutherans, the, 115, 153, 185. 
Luynes, Due de, 99. 
Luxembourg, the, 104. 
Lydenburg, 352, 425. 
Lyons, 31. 



M. 

McCarthy, Justin, 260, 262. 

" McClure's Magazine," 147, 346. 

MacDonald, Colonel Hector, 312, 322, 

330= 1>7>1, 417, 444, 445- 
Macedonia, 164, 201, 203, 211, 214, 217, 

219, 221, 223. 
Mackenzie, W. Douglas, 400. 
McKinley, President William, 474, 

498, 501, 502. 
MacMahon, President Patrice, 46. 
McMurdo, Colonel, 434. 
Madagascar, 49, 51, 83, 259, 438-443. 
Madeleine, the Church of the, 31. 
Mad Mullah of Swat, the, 278. 
Madrid, 501, 502, 506, 514. 
Mafeking, 261, 357, 362,363, 364,366, 

367, 387, 388, 397, 403, 409, 42S, 

429-430. 
Magersfontein, the Battle of, 412, 413. 
Magyars, the, 152, 462, 481. 
Mahdi, the, 32S, 331, 332, 334, 335, 342. 
Mahdism, 321, 329, 335, 343, 450. 
Mahmonds, the, 279. 
Mahmud, 316, 318, 319, 320,322,323, 

324, 326, 341- 
Mahon, Colonel, 429. 
Mahrattas, the, 286. 
Maid of Orleans, the, 53. 
" Maine," the, 498, 499, 500, 504. 
Majoribanks, Mr., 133. 
Majuba Day, 406, 416, 418. 
Majuba Hill, 253, 433. 
Makale, 438. 

Malakand Pass, the, 274, 275. 
Malan, Commandant, 368, 369. 
Malplaquet, the Battle of, 55. 
Manchu dynasty, the, 138. 
Manchuria, 137, 138, 139. 
Manila, 506, 507, 517, 518. 
Manila Bay, 506. 
Marash, 176, 179. 



536 



INDEX 



Marathon, 206. 

Marchand, Major, 57, 5S, 81, 93, 98, 

Zl^', 33S. 339. 340. 437, 447- 
Marchand Mission, the, 57. 
Margarethe, Princess of Saxony, 492. 
Margarita, Queen, of Italy, 469, 471, 

473, 475- 
Marie, the Grand Duchess, 116. 
Marie, Grand Duchess, of Russia, 223. 
Marie, Princess, of Roumania, 223. 
Maria Christina, Queen Regent of 

Spain, 502, 504, 505, 521. 
" Maria Cristina," the, 506. 
Maria Louisa, Princess, ot Parma, 

216, 217, 222. 
Maria Theresa, of Portugal, 492, 493. 
Marmora, the Sea of, 184. 
Marsanne, 96. 
Martin, Henri, 50. 
Martin, Sir Theodore, 240. 
Martinique, 509. 
Marvell, Andrew, 350. 
Mary, Princess, of Cambridge, 245, 

246. 
Masai, the, 446. 
Maschin, Madame, 228. 
Massowah, 466. 
Mastaj, 269, 274. 
Matabele, the, 346-347, 378, 430, 453, 

454-455- 
Matabeleland, 454, 
Matanzas, 501. 
Mati, the Battle of, 204. 
" Matin," the, 103. 
Maurice, 27. 
Mauritians, the, 442. 
Mauritius, the, 439, 443. 
Mavromichali, General, 204. 
Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, 485, 493. 
Maximilian, Emperor, 245. 
Maximilian, Emperor, of Mexico, 4S5. 
Maxwell, 330. 

May, Princess of Teck, 245, 246. 
Mazzini, 462. 
Mecca, 1S2. 
Mediterranean, the, 17, 19, 55, 133, 

1S4-190, 449, 470, 517. 
Mehemet Ali, 17, 191. 
Mehikoff, Loris, 116. 
Meline, 94. 
Melinite, 39. 
Meluna Pass, the, 203, 204. 



Memdukh Pasha, 203, 204. 

Menelik, King, 106. 

Menelik II., of Abyssinia, 436, 466. 

Menelik, son of King Solomon, 436. 

Mennonites, the, 113. 

Mercier, General, 35, 36, 40, 44, 45, 

63, 65, 78, 79, 80, Z2>i S9, 109, 439- 
Meriones, 189. 
Merle, Major, 85, 86. 
" Merrimac," the, 509-510, 512. 
Merritt, Engineer, 500. 
Merv, 145. 
Mesopotamia, 187. 
Metanmieh, 316, 318, 320, 341. 
Methuen, Lord Paul, 398, 409, 410, 

411, 413, 414, 426. 
Metz, 55. 

IMetzinger, General, 439. 
Mexico, 82, 108, 485. 
Meyer, Arthur, 105. 
Michael, the Grand Duke, of Russia, 

151. 
Middle Ages, the, 189, 212. 
Midhat Pasha, 160-161, 162, 188,213. 
Milan, 463, 471,475- 
Milan, ex-King of Servia, 227, 228, 

229, 230, 474. 
Miles, General, 508, 515, 516. 
Miliutin, General, 116. 
Millerand, M., 82, 102. 
Millevoye, M., 25, '103. 
Milner, Sir Alfred, 354, 384, 385, 391, 

408. 
Milosch, Prince, 227. 
Milwaukee, the Bishop of, 477. 
Moberley, Lieutenant, 274. 
Modder River, the, 393, 398, 410, 413, 

414, 416. 
Mohammed, iSi. 
Mohammed XII., 182. 
Mohammedans, the, 162, 166, 167, 169, 

178, 179, 182, 183, 1S6, 190, 192, 

194, 195, 196, 197, 267, 278, 286, 

287, 445, 450- 
Moldavia, 223. 
Mombassa, 337, 446. 
Monaco, 4S0. 
Monarchist party, the, 11. 
Monferrat, Marquis of, 190. 
Mongol Empire, the, 135, 138. 
Monod, Gabriel, 49. 
Monroe doctrine, the, 260. 



INDEX 



537 



Monson, Sir Edmund, 259. 

Monte Cristo, 404, 405. 

Montelimar, 95, 96. 

Montenegro, 226. 

Montojo, Admiral, 506, 507. 

Monza, 471, 472. 

Mores, Marquis de, 67, 6g. 

Morgan, J. Pierpont, 513. 

Morley, John, 2^4, 263. 

" Morning Post," the, 406. 

Morocco, 1 82, 1S3, 448-452, 464. 

Morro, Fort, 509. 

Moscow, 52, 128, 136, 140, 143, 156, 

157- 
Moslems, the, 178, 198, 251. 
Murad, Ex-Sultan, 160, 162, 163. 
Muravieff, Count, 56, 124, 137, 138. 
Murdan, 283. 
Munger's Drift, 404. 
Miilhausen, see Mulhoiise. 
Mulhouse, 62. 
Munich, 26, 27. 
Mussulmans, the, 161, 190, 191, 194 

197, 198. 
Mwanga, King, of Uganda, 444, 445. 

N. 

Nagasaki, 141. 

Nakheila, 324, 32S. 

Nanak of Lahore, 2S1. 

Nancy, 29. 

Nansen, 469. 

Nantes, 88. 

Napier, Sir Charles, 2S1, 412. 

Napoleon, system of local administra- 
tion established in France by, 12, 
55. 84, 106, 245. 

Napoleon III., 11, 41, 105. 

Napoleon Bonaparte, Prince, 105. 

Natal, 348, 3S3, 3S4, 386, 387, 388, 
389, 396, 397, 39S, 399, 403, 404? 
409, 416, 419, 429, 454, 457. 

Natalie, Queen, of Servia, 228, 229. 

" Nation," the, 38, 199, 474. 

National Assembly, the, in France, 
46. 

Nationalist party, the, in France, 11, 
85, 93, 98, 99, 100, loi, 109, 340. 

Nedjib Bey, Captain, 207. 

Nelson, Lord, 243. 



Nemours, Due de, 58. 

Nero, 155. 

Neshat Pasha, 203, 204, 208. 

Nesselrode, Minister, 137, 

Netherlands Railway, the, 381. 

Neufeldt, Charles, 333. 

New Caledonia, 65. 

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 146. 

New Dongola, 311, 313, 314. 

New York, 200, 49S, 499. 

New York, the Bishop of, 237, 477. 

" New York Herald," the, 174. 

New Zealand, 387. 

Nice. II, 55, 135, 246. 

Nicholas L, of Russia, 139, 153, 449, 
4S4. 

Nicholas IL, of Russia, visits France, 
51-54, 131; 56, 116; his betrothal, 
116-117; his character, iiS; his first 
love, 119; his travels, 120; attacked 
in Japan, 120-123; ascends the 
throne, 125; his marriage, 126; his 
coronation, 128-130; the chrisma- 
tion, 130-131; his desire for peace, 
14S-150; 157, 218, 221, 222, 474, 
491. 

Nicholas, Prince, of Greece, 204. 

Nicholas (Nikita), Prince, of Monte- 
negro, 222, 227. 

Nicholson's Nek, 392, 393, 394, 395. 

Niger, the, 451. 

Nigeria, 259. 

Nigra, Signor di, 149. 

Nihilists, the, 29, 214. 

Nijni-Novgorod, 135. 

Nile, the, 51, 58, 106, 299, 302, 307, 
30S, 310, 311, 312, 313, 318, 319, 
320, 321, 322, 323, 327, 328, 334, 

335, 337, 338, 341, 343, 443, 446. 
Nile, Valley, the, 58. 
" Nineteenth Century Magazine," 

the, 375. 
Nixon, Miss Mary F., 513. 
Nizam-ul-MuIk, 26S. 
Noel, Admiral, 196. 
Nordenskjold, 138. 
Nore, the, 242, 243. 
North Africa, 183, 1S9. 
Northern Cape Colony, 420. 
Northern Natal, 397, 420. 
Northern Siberia, 144. 
Norton, 25. 



538 



INDEX 



Nervals Pont, 403. 

Norway, 155. 

Notre Dame Cathedral, the, 53, 54, 

Nubian Desert, the, 314, 321. 

Nubians, the, 325. 

Nyassaland, 446. 



O. 



Obi, the, 13S. 

Obok, 340, 436, 43S. 

Obrenovitch dynasty, the, in Servia 

227, 228. 
Odessa, 141, 142, 214. 
Ohrwalder, Father, 303, 334. 
Old Dongola, 299. 
Old Paris, 58. 

Olga, Princess, of Russia, 126. 
OUivier, ^rnile, on the death of de 

Lesseps, ig-20. 
Olney, Richard, 260. 
" Olympia," the, 506, 507. 
Olympic Games, the, 211. 
Olympus, Mount, 203, 211. 
Omar Pasha, 191. 

Omdurman, the Battle of, 58, 259, 301, 
314. 315. 316, 319, 320. 322, 328, 
329. 330, 331, 332, 333. 337. 339, 
341, 342, 438. 
Orakzais, the, 280. 

Orange Free State, the, 344, 348, 349, 

363. 372, 375, 379. 381. 386, 396, 

397, 401, 403, 409, 413, 414, 418, 

419, 420, 422, 425, 427, 432, 455. 

Orange River, the, 397, 398, 409, 419, 

422. 
Oreglia, Cardinal Luigi, 476. 
"Oregon," the, 508. 
Orleanists, the, 10, 12, 93, 98, 99, 

105. 
Orleans, the Duke of, 98, 99, 100, 103, 

104, 105, 106. 
Osman Azrak, 314, 329. 
Osman Digna, 300, 301, 318, 322, 323, 

326, 341- 
Ossa, 211. 
Ossova, 482. 

Othrys Mountains, the, 20S. 
Ottoman Bank, the, iSo, 188. 
Ottoman Empire, the, 165, 186, 212. 
Otzu, 120, 197. 



Ouchtomsky, Prince, 120. 
"Outlook," the, 228, 307, 415, 421, 
430, 469, 470, 497, 516, 521- 



Pacific Ocean, the, 133. 

Pain, Olivier, 335. 

Palermo, 472. 

Palestine, 1S3, 1S4, 185, 300. 

"Pall Mall Gazette," the, 234. 

Palmerston, Lord, 17, 252. 

Panama, 13. 

Panama, the Isthmus of, 13, 18. 

Panama affair, the, 13-21 ; 25, 48. 

Pando, General, 511. 

Panizzardi, 70, 80. 

Panslavism, 119. 

Panslavists, the, 119. 

Pantheon, the, 33. 

Paraguay, 434. 

Parfait, Captain, 85. 

Paris, 26, 27, 29, 42, 47, 50, 52, 53, 

58, 63, 94, 96, 211. 
Paris, the Archbishop of, 103. 
Paris, Comte de, 11, 23, 96. 
Paris, Declaration of, 504. 
Paris, the Siege of, 104. 
Paris Exposition, the, 57, 104, 109, 

211, 222, 477. 
Parkman, Doctor, 68. 
Parliamentary system, the, 16. 
Parsons, Colonel, 319, 341. 
Pasich, M., 229. 
Paterson (N. J.), 468, 471. 
Pathans, the, 266, 267, 276, 279. 
Paul, Saint, 1S9. 
Peary, Lieutenant, 469. 
Peasant State, the, 213, 218. 
Peel, Sir Robert, 251. 
Pekin, 145, 468. 
Pelew Islands, the, 520. 
Pelion, 211. 
Pelloux, General, 468. 
Pera, 162. 
Perier, Ernest, 43. 
Perier, M., see Casimir-Perier, 
Perseus, Cellini's, 20. 
Persia, 145, 164, 165. 
Persia, the Shah of, 474. 
Persian Gulf, the, 133, 145. 



INDEX 



539 



Persians, the, 183. 

Peshawar, 275, 277, 278, 280, 283. 

Petersborough, the Bishop of, 130. 

Peter Karageorgevitch, Prince, 229. 

Peter the Great, 155. 

Pharsala, 205, 206, 207, 208. 

"Philippe VII.," 98. 

Philippines, the, 149, 506, 507, 518, 

Phillips, Lionel, 361, 372, 373. 

Phoenix Park, Dublin, 247. 

Picardy, 50. 

Picquart, Colonel Georges, 61, 66, 68, 

69, 72, 78, S3, 107, 109. 
Pietermaritzburg, 397, 403. 
Pieters, the Battle of, 405. 
" Pilot," the, 4S0. 
Pitsani, 363, 364, 366. 
Plambach, Dr., 121. 
Plevna, 223. 

Plumer, Colonel, 429, 430. 
" Pluton," the, 512, 513. 
Poincare, M., 44. 
Poland, 54, 125, 127. 
Polk, James K., 46. 
Ponce, 517. 
Poona, 2S6, 2S7, 2S8. 
Pope's Roman Legion, the, 67. 
Port Arthur, 137, 139. 
Porte, the Sublime, 114, 155, 162, 167, 

176, 177, 192, 196, 197- 
Port Said, 517. 

Portugal, in South Africa, 434-435. 
Portuguese, the, 434. 
Potgieter's Ferry, 401, 404. 
" Pothuau," the, 56. 
Powell, Lieutenant, 510. 
Prague, 483. 
Pressense, Francis de, 195, 234, 238, 

239- 
Pretoria, 350, 351, 353, 356, 363, 367, 

369. 370, 371, 372, 375. 378, 396 
399, 409, 419. 422, 423, 424, 425, 
426,429, 431, 434, 457. 

Pretoria, Fort, 361, 362. 

Pretorius, President, of the Transvaal, 

34S, 349, 352- 
Prevesa, 209. 
Probedonostzeff, M., 127, 12S, 153, 

154- . 
Proctor, Senator, 502, 503, 504. 
Protestants of Ulster, the, in Ireland, 

250. 



Provence, 47. 

Puerto Rico, 508, 509, 516, 517, 518. 

Pundita Ramabai, 291. 

Punials, the, 273. 

Punjaub, the, 266, 273, 277, 281, 283. 

Q- 

Queen's Jubilee, the, 233. 
Queretaro, 485. 
Quiberon, 75. 



R. 

Raad, the, 345,359, 385- 

Rabah, 450. 

Radetzky, General, 252. 

Radicals, the, in France, 10, 11. 

Rainilaiarivony, 442. 

Rajputana, 292. 

Rallies, les, France, 23. 

Ramseyer, Rev. Mr., 453. 

Ramseyer, Mrs., 453. 

Ranavalona, Queen of Madagascar, 

438-443- 
Rand, Dr., 288. 
Ras-el-Hudi, 320, 323. 
Ravachol, 24, 42. 
Raynal, M., 43. 

"Recessional," Kipling's, 241. 
Red Cross, the, 149, 438, 516. 
Redifs, the, 200. 
Red Sea, the, 17, 19, 300, 302, 308, 

318. 
Regent's Park, 133. 
Reichsrath, the, 127. 
Reichstadt, Duke de, 4S6. 
Reichstag, the, 127. 
Reinach, Baron Joseph, 14 ; suicide 

of, 15, 16. 
Reinach, M., 72. 
" Reina Cristina," the, 507. 
Renan, 17. 
Rennes, 45, 63, 65, 72^ 74, 76, 78, 8:2, 

86, 94, 97, 102, 103, 109, 229. 
Republic, the Second, in France, 42. 
Republic, the Third, in France, 45, 

61. 
" Republique Frangaise, La," 36, 50. 
Reschid, 163. 
Restoration, the, France, 11. 



540 



INDEX 



Reunion Island, the, 441. 

Roumania, King of, 116. 

Reveni Pass, the, 203, 204, 206. 

" Review of Reviews," the, 234, 239. 

Rheims, 53. 

Rhodes, Cecil, 51, 362, 371, 379, 380, 

409, 414, 455, 456. 
Rhodes, Colonel Francis, 361, 372, 

373> 378, 414- 
Rhodesia, 361, 429, 453-455, 457. 
Ribot, M., 23. 
Richelieu, Cardinal, 50. 
Richmond Park, 246. 
Riet River, 414. 
" Rire Le," 98, 99. 
" River War," Churchill's, 301, 312, 

314, 319, 336- 
Riza Pasha, 203. 
Robert, Prince, of Parma, 216. 
Roberts, Lady, 423. 
Roberts, Lieutenant, 400. 
Roberts, Lord, 236, 247, 378, 394, 

397, 400, 403, 410; in command in 

South Africa, 412-430, 457. 
Robertson, Sir George, 269, 270, 271, 

275. 
Roberts College, Constantinople, 162. 
Robespierre, 84. 
Robinson, Sir Hercules, 370. 
Rochefort, Henri, 41, 72, 96, 98. 
Rodd, Rennell, 106, 437. 
Roget, General, 80, 97, 109. 
Romans, the, 164. 
Roman See, the, 166. 
Rome, 164, 468, 478,479. 
Roosevelt, Colonel Theodore, 514. 
Roosevelt's Rough Riders, 511. 
Rosares, 341. 

Rosares Cataract, the, 341. 
Rosebery, Lord, 254, 261, 262, 263, 

264. 
Rosenau, Castle, 244. 
Rothschild, Baroness de, 489. 
Rothschild, Ferdinand, 12. 
Roumania, 214, 223, 224, 225, 226. 
Roumanians, the, 211. 
Roumelia, 215. 
Rouvier, M., 16, 22. 
Rovkfe, Nicholas, 241. 
"Royal Convent," Rowe's, 241. 
Royal Irish Fusiliers, the, in South 

Africa, 392, 393, 



Rudini, Marquis di, 465, 466, 468. 

Rudolph, Arcliduke, of Austria, 486, 
487, 488, 490, 492. 

Rinz, Colonel, 497. 

Runjeet Singii, 2S1. 

Russia, 29, 51, 55; alliance with 
France, 56; influence of Alexan- 
der JII. upon, 113-115; Panslavism 
in, 119; railroads and waterways 
i") 133-147; 164, 166, 167, 168, 
^76, 177, 186, 191, 197, 200, 210, 
212, 214, 215, 221, 230, 237, 249, 
267, 305, 436, 438. 

Russian "alliance," the, 13, 29. 

" Russia and Turkey in the Nine- 
teenth Century," Latimer's, 113, 
128, 134, 140, 144, 159, 162, 163, 
212, 215, 223, 226, 227. 

Russian Armenia, 165, 167. 

Russo-Turkish War, the, 114, 132, 
14S, 161, 214, 223. 

Ruthenians, the, 4S2. 



S. 



Sadi-Carnot, President, 9-32; his 
origin, 11; his elevation to the 
Presidency, 12 ; conditions of his 
time, 12-28; the Russian "al- 
liance," 29-30 ; ■ assassination of, 
31-32 ; 33> 34» 42, 45) 46, 48, 51. 
55. 56, 474- 

Sadowa, the Battle of, 485. 

Sagas ta, Sefior, 497, 519, 520. 

Saghalien, 121. 

Saghalien, the Gulf of, 137, 140, 141. 

Sagua, 501. 

Sahara, the Desert of, 18. 

Said Pasha, 17. 

St. Helena, 368, 417, 418, 457. 

St. Joseph, the Church of, Paris, 
103. 

St. Paul's Cathedral, London, 237. 

St. Peter's, Rome, 479. 

St. Petersburg, 106, 140, 142, 143, 
144. 153. 154, 219, 222, 438. 

St. Quentin, 49. 

St. Stephen, 484. 

Sakalavas, the, 439. 

Salisbury, Lady, 261. 

Salisbury, Lord, 51, 193, 195, 197, 249, 



INDEX 



541 



251, 254, 257, 258, 259, 260, 261, 

343> 4i9> 420, 421, 437, 443, 451. 
Salonica, 200, 202. 
Salvation Army, the, 238. 
Samarkand, 144. 
Samos, 191. 
Sampson, 378. 

Sampson, Admiral, 505, 509, 512, 515. 
Sandherr, Colonel, 66. 
San Francisco, 137, 517. 
San Juan (Cuba), 509, 514. 
San Juan (Puerto Rico), 517. 
San Marino, 480. 
San Mun Bay, 46S. 
San Remo, 4SS. 

San Stefano, the Treaty of, 166, 215. 
Santiago, 254, 511-512, 513, 514, 515, 

516. 
Santiago Harbor, 509, 512. 
Sardinia, the Island of, 46S. 
Sarras, 310. 

Sassoun, 170, 171, 175, 176, 177. 
Savoff, M., 218. 
Savoy, province of, 11, 55. 
Saxe-Coburg, dukedom of, 244. 
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Duke of, 116. 
Sayad Akbar, 278, 2S0, 2S1. 
Scheurer-Kestner, M., 62, 69, 89. 
Schiel, Colonel, 3S8, 389, 391, 428. 
Schley, Commodore, 505, 509, 512, 515. 
Schreiner, Mr., 456. 
Schwartzkoppen, Colonel, 63, 66, 68, 

70, 80. 
Scotland, 236. 
Scott, Sir Francis, 452. 
Seaforth Highlanders, 196, 282; in 

South Africa, 411. 
Secocoeni, 345, 349, 357. 
Selamik, the, 163. 
Selim I., of Turkey, 181, 186. 
Senegal, 337. 
Senegalese, the, 451. 
Senoussi, 1S3. 

Senoussi of Jaboub, 1S3, 450. 
Sepoys, the, 271. 

Serafino, Cardinal Vannulelli, 476. 
"Sergent, Le," Copple's, 93. 
Sergius, the Grand Duke, 125, 157. 
Servia, 223, 227, 22S, 229. 
Seven Wells, the, 209. 
Sevign^, Madame de, 96. 
Seyd Akbar, see Sayad Akbar. 



Seyfoullah Pasha, 203, 204. 

" Sfax," the, 74, 75, 76. 

Shafter, General, 508, 511, 514, 515, 
516. 

Shangar Pass, the, 273. 

Sheba, Queen of, 436. 

Sheik-ed-Din, the, 329, 

Sheikh-ul-Islam, the, iSo, 1S6. 

Shendi, 320, 328. 

Shepstone, Sir Theophilus, 344, 345, 
346, 353- 

Sher Afzul, 26S, 269. 

Shervinton, Colonel, 439. 

Shinwari, the, 2S5. 

Shuja-ul-Mulk, 268, 269, 274. 

Siam, 259. 

Siber, 136, 137. 

Siberia, 124, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137 
13S, 140, 141, 143, 144, 156. 

Siberians, the, 124, 138, 139. 

Siboney, 511. 

Sicilians, the, 462. 

Sicily, 462, 464, 467. 

Sidoroff, 138. 

" Siecle," the, too. 

Sierra Leone, 452. 

Sigsbee, Captain, 499. 

Sikhs, the, 26S, 269, 270, 271, 272, 

273, 274, 275, 280, 281, 282, 308. 
Silvela, Seiior, 520. 
Sipido, 24S. 
Sirkai, the, 285. 
Slatin Bey, 299. 

Slatin Pasha, 299, 300, 303, 332, 335. 
Slavs, the, 119. 
Smit, 351. 

Smith, Sir Harry, 389. 
Smith, Lady, 3S9. 
Smolensk!, General, 204, 206, 207. 
Smolensk plot, the, 115-116. 
Smolensk Railway, the, 115. 
Socialism, compared with Anarchism, 

23- 
Socialist, defined, 27. 
Socialists, the, 11, 44, 45, 98. 
Sofia, 219, 221, 223. 
Soho, London, 255. 
Solomon, King, 436. 
Sophia, Archduchess, of Bavaria, 485, 

4S6. 
Sophia, Duchess of Alengon, 485. 
Sophia, Princess, 183. 



542 



INDEX 



Sophia, Saint, 163. 

Soudan, the, 93, 106, 249, 259, 299, 
300, 302, 303, 308, 310, 311, 319, 

323. 324> 335, 33S- 
Soudanese, the, 311, 312, 315, 320, 

326-327, 330, 339, 341, 444, 445- 
Soudan Military Railway, the, 321, 

327 
South Africa, 98, 149, 259, 263, 344, 

350, 356, 375, 3S4, 386, 3S7, 396, 

397, 412 ; geography of, 413-414 ; 

421, 427, 454, 455. 
" South Africa : Its History, Heroes, 

and Wars," Mackenzie's, 400. 
South African Company, the, 443, 455. 
South African Republic, the, 

Transvaal, the. 
Southern Asia, 278, 
Southern Siberia, 144. 
Southwestern Siberia, 144. 
Spain, 185, 449, 464, 469, 500, 502, 

503, 504. 5°5, 508, 517, 518, 519, 

520, 521. 
Spain, Queen Regent of, 44. 
" Spain in the Nineteenth Century," 

Latimer's, 497. 
Spalding, Bishop, 478. 
Spanish-American War, the, 497-521. 
Spanish Jews, 202. 
Spartel, Cape, 449, 
" Spectator," the London, 106, 109, 

149, 150, 158, 235, 237, 243, 427, 

443, 444, 474, 5oi- 
Sphakiots, the, 191, 192, 198. 
Spion Kop, 402, 403, 404. 
Spithead, 242, 243. 
Sprigg, Sir Gordon, 456. 
Sryetensk, 140. 

Staffordshire Regiment, the, 313. 
Stamboul, 1S8. 
Stambuloff, Stefan, 212, 213, 214, 215, 

216, 217, 21S, 219, 220, 221. 
Stanley, Governor, 294. 
Stanley, Sir Henry, 446, 447, 454. 
Stead, Alfred, 400. 
Stead, W. T., 234, 239, 241. 
Steevens, G. W., 80, 82, 83, 200, 202, 

205, 207, 266, 281, 284, 2S5, 2S8, 

303, 304, 306, 3", 322, 325, 327, 

380, 381, 390, 392, 395. 
Stephanie, Princess, of Belgium, 486, 

488. 



Stephenson, 17. 

Steppes, the Siberian, 134. 

Stettin, 125. 

Steyn, President, 386, 419. 

Stillman, W, J., 474. 

Stokes, Mr., 448. 

"Story of Baden-Powell," Begbie's 

430- 
Strasburg, 26. 
Street, Colonel, 276. 
Student riots, in Paris, 26-28. 
Stundists, the, 115. 
Suakim, 300, 301, 308, 309, 318, 341, 

438. 
Suberbeville, 440. 
Subic Bay, 506. 
Suez, the Isthmus of, 17. 
Suez Canal, the, 13, 17-18, 19, 141, 

517- 
Sunnites, the, 278. 
Suyman, General, 429. 
Swat River, the, 283. 
Swat, the Valley of the, 281. 
Sweden, 152, 153, 155. 
Swedes, the, 152. 

Switzerland, 70, 465, 468, 488, 491. 
Symons, General fcir W. Penn, 389, 

39^ 398. 
Syria, 185, 187, 189. 
Sztaray, Countess, 489, 490. 



Taaffe, Count, 482, 483. 

Tait, Mrs., 256. 

Talleyrand, 69. 

Tamatave, 442, 443. 

Tampa, Florida, 508, 511, 516. 

Tanganyika, Lake, 44S. 

Tangier, 449. 

Tartars, the, 136, 138. 

Tartary, the Gulf of, 137. 

Tchad, Lake, 343. 

Tcheragan, 162. 

Tchernogora, 226. 

Teck, Duke of, 245. 

Teheran, 145. 

Tenth Regiment (U. S.) at Santiago, 

514. 
Terrell, Mr., 177, 1S6, 1S7. 
Territet, 489. 



INDEX 



543 



Tetuan, 449. 

" Texas," the, 516. 

Thaddeus, the Apostle, 164. 

Thermopylae, 20S. 

Thessaly, the war in, 199-211. 

Thibet, 106 

Thiers, President Adolphe, 46, 91. 

Thirty Days' War, the, 199-21 1, 

2i;i. 
Thorneycroft, Colonel, 402, 403. 
" Through Armenia on Horseback," 

iSi. 
Thun, Count, 4S2, 4S3. 
Thun, Duke of, 486. 
Tibesti, 451. 
Timbuctoo, 451. 
"Times," the London, 82, no, 209, 

_229, 291, 333, 367. 
Timour, 165. 
Tirah Expedition, the, 280-285, 389, 

396. 
Tirah Valley, the, 278, 2S0, 281, 283, 

284. 
Tirard, M., 14. 
Tirnova, 213, 215. 
Titus, 189. 
Tobolsk, 137. 
Toit, M. de, 455, 456. 
Tokio, 122, 123, 
Tomsk, 143. 
Tonquin, 106. 

Top Kapou, the palace of, 163. 
Toral, General, 511, 514, 515, 516. 
Touaregs, the, 450. 
Toulon, 13 ; Russian fleet at harbor of, 

28, 29 ; 84, 98. 
Tower, the, London, 238. 
Townshend, Lieutenant, 269. 
Trade Union Congress, a, in Paris, 

33-34- 
Transbaikalia, 137. 
Trans-Caspian Railroad, the, 135, 

144. 
Trans-Siberian Railroad, the, 124, 

133-134, 135. ^zi^ '38, 139. 140, 

144. 
Transvaal, the, 149, 247, 249, 253, 
2S9i 344-355 j the Jameson Raid, 
356-378 ; the Boer War, 379-435, 

455- 
"Transvaal from Within," Fitz- 
patrick's, 369, 383. 



Transvaal National Union, the, 358, 

359- 

Trebizond, 178. 

Trek, the great, 346, 348. 

Trichardt's Drift, 404. 

Trieste, 1S5. 

Triple Alliance, the, 29, 57, 464, 475. 

Tripoli, 183, 1S8, 343, 450. 

Tripolitan Hinterland, the, 451. 

Tripone, Captain, 39-40. 

" Trooper 3809," Decle's, 430. 

Troy, the siege of, 1S9. 

Tsuda Sanzo, 121, 123, 124. 

Tufekcheff, 220. 

Tugela River, the, 399, 401, 404, 405, 
414. 

Tunis, 69. 

Turin, 104. 

Turkestan, 145. 

Turkey, 49,115; 160, 166, 169, 176, 
182, 183, 1S5, 186, 192, 196, 197, 
198, 200, 202, 210, 211, 214, 217, 
220, 263, 449, 464. 

"Turkey and the Armenian Atro- 
cities," Bliss and Hamlin's, 170. 

Turkish Armenia, 166, 168. 

Turko-Grecian War, the, 183, 201-21 1, 
221. 

Turko-Servian War, the, 214. 

Turks, the, 190, 191, 193, 200, 201, 
202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 209, 
214, 223, 226, 251, 279, 310, 323. 

Turpin, 39-40. 

Tuscans, the, 462. 

Tuscany, 55, 127. 

Two Sicilies, the, 127. 

Tyrnavo, 205. 

Tyrol, the, 244, 468, 491, 492, 493. 

U. 

Uganda, 338, 443-446.^ 

Uganda Rifles, the, 445, 448. 

Ugo Foscolo, 462. 

Uitlanders, the, 344, 348, 351, 354, 
356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361, 364, 
369, 379, 380, 385, 386, 387, 423, 
432. 

Umra Khan, 268, 269, 274. 

United States, the, 154, 175, 176, 254, 

293, 360, 383, 393, 434, 477, 499, 
500, 502, 503, 504, 508, 517, 519. 



544 



INDEX 



421, 



492. 



Unyoro, 338, 443, 444, 445- 

Upper Congo, the, 447. 

Upper Nile, the, 336. 

Ural Mountains, the, 134, 135, 136. 

Urfa, 173. 

Uzes, Duchesse d', 58, 59. 



V. 

Vaal, the, 34S. 

Vaal Krantz, 404. 

Vaal River, the, 353, 3S1, 414, 

422. 
Vaillant, 30, 42. 
Valabrogne, Madame, 88, 91. 
Valabrogne, Paul, SS. 
Valerie, Archduchess, of Austria, 
Valerien, Fort, 71. 
Van, 174, 177. 
Vandeleur, Lieutenant, 443. 
Varanger Fiord, the, 155. 
Vartenis, 171. 
Vassos, Colonel, 195, 196. 
Vatican, the, at Rome, 4S0. 
" Vega," the, 13S. 
Velestino, 206, 207, 
Venetia, 484. 
Venetians, the, 190. 
Venezuela, 260. 
Venezuela Question, the, 259. 
Venice, 166. 
Verde, Cape de, 504. 
Versailles, 17, 94, 96. 
Victor, Archduke, of Austria. 493 
Victor Emmanuel III., see Victor 

foleon, Prince. 
Victor Emmanuel, King, of Italy, 

469, 491. 
Victor Napoleon, Prince, of Italy, 

106, 461, 469, 470, 473, 474, 

480. 
Victoria, Queen, 99, 126, 131, 233 

Diamond Jubilee, 233-24S; her 

isters, 249-264 ; 432, 475, 490. 
" Victoria and Albert," the, 244. 
Vienna, 217, 222, 482, 484, 488, 

492. 493- 
Viguier, M., 88. 
"Viscaya," the, 244, 498, 510, 

513- 
Visconti-Venosta, Marquis, 466. 



Na- 



105, 
475. 

; the 



489, 



Vladivostok, 124, 135, 137, 138; the 

forts of, 138; 139, 140, 141, 142. 
Volga, the, 135, 144. 
Volksraad, the, Transvaal, 348, 352, 

357, 358. 359, 384, 3S6. 
" Volkstein," the, 426. 
Volo, 206, 207, 

Von Moltke, General, 55, 252, 
Voulet, Captain, 451, 452. 
Vryburg, 388, 429, 455. 
Vulkovich, Dr., 220. 



W. 

Wad Bisliara, the Emir, 311, 313, 

314, 326. 
Wad Helu, 329. 
Wady Haifa, 299, 308, 309, 310, 311, 

314, 315,319,321,327, 334- 
Wadai, 1S3, 343,450,451. 
Wainwright, Captain, 513, 
Waldeck-Rousseau, M., 46, 62, 81, 

102, 103, loS. 
Wales, 236. 
Wales, the Prince of, 243, 244, 246, 

24S, 254, 430, 474. 
Wales, tlie Princess of, 244. 
Walfish Bay, 380. 
Wallachia, 223. 
Waller, Consul, 442. 
Warburton, Sir Robert, 275, 276, 277, 

282. 
Warren, Sir Charles, 357, 401, 403, 

455- 
War Tax Bill, the, United States, 

505. 
Washington (D. C), 498, 501, 515, 

517- 
Watervaal, 424. 
Wauchope, Lord, 411, 
Webster, Doctor, 68. 
Wellington, Duke of, 148, 412. 
West Africa, 51. 
Western Africa, 81, 339. 
Western Asia, 145, 164. 
Western Europe, 189, 212. 
Western India, 293. 
Western Siberia, 139. 
West Indies, the, 388, 499. 
Westmacott, General, 284. 
Westminster, Dean of, 257. 



INDEX 



545 



Westminster Abbey, 254, 256. 
Westminster Hall, London, 254. 
Wet, General de, 422, 425, 427, 428. 
Wet, Sir Jacobus de, 367, 370, 371. 
Weyler, General, 497, 498, 502. 
Wheeler, General, 511. 
Whitchurch, Dr., 269, 270, 271. 
White, General Sir George, 247, 3S9, 

393. 39S, 406, 407- 
Whitechapel, London, 256. 
White Nile, the, 327, 328, y^^T, 341, 

342- 

White Sea, the, 146, 156. 
Wilkinson, Spencer, 275. 
William, Emperor, 45, 75, 125, 148, 

1S4, 210, 225, 3S0, 3S3, 464, 474. 
Willoughby, Sir John, 367, 368, 376. 
Windischgratz, Prince, 482. 
Windt, Harry de, 141. 
Wingate, Colonel, 316, 333, 342. 
Witte, M. de, 155. 
Wolseley, Sir Garnet, 301, 315, 453. 
Wood, Sir Evelyn, 403, 404. 
Wood, General Leonard, 307. 
Woodford, General, 502, 504. 
Woodgate, Colonel, 402, 403. 
" World," the New York, 514. 
Wormeley, Admiral, 150, 242. 
Wormeley, Captain James, 313. 
Wormeley, James Preble, 13. 
Wiirtemberg, Duke of, 245. 



X. 

Xenia, Princess, of Russia, 151. 



Yakub, 329. 

" Yaroslar," the, 141. 

Yermak, 135, 136, 137, 139, 146. 

Yenisei, the, 138. 

Yildiz Palace, 162, 163, 203. 

York, Duchess, of, 246. 

York, Duke of, 126, 245, 246, 254. 

Younghusband, Captain, 367. 

"Young Turkey," 162, 178, 1S7. 

Yule, Colonel, 391, 39^. 

Yves-Guyot, M., 28, 100. 



" Zafir," the, 313. 

Zanzibar, 439. 

Zeitoun, 179. 

Zeki Osman, 318. 

Zekki Pasha, 168, 174. 

Zola, Emile, trial of, 61, 63, 69-70, 

107, 109. 
Zululand, 357, 399. 
Zulus, the, 344, 388, 396, 430. 
Zurlinden, General, 71, 102. 



113B0 



Jan • 17 1901 



DEC 26 1900 • 



